Cookbook Club Results & Reminder #7: Three Recipes Following the Pasta alla Gricia Blueprint (Patreon)

Hi Cookbook Club members!

Erin here with your regularly scheduled reminder to test out this month’s recipe variations based on the pasta alla gricia blueprint: pasta alla gricia con funghi e shoyu; asparagus and rigatoni alla gricia; and tteok alla gricia. The links to each recipe and their respective feedback surveys can be found in this article.

Speaking of: How are we feeling about this new format? Are three separate feedback surveys helpful or did you prefer the previous method that utilized a single survey? Let us know!

The Report

We have 69 feedback submissions from 55 Frienjis thus far. Special appreciation to the multi-recipe testers: David, Anne S., Laura T., Brittany G., Porcini, Dave H., Naomi K., Robert H., Joanie, Michael P., and Dave.

With 32 and 30 feedback submissions each, variation #1, pasta all gricia con funghi e shoyu, and variation #2, asparagus and rigatoni alla gricia, are taking the cake for the most feedback. There were two main pain points with these variations and both have to do with the guanciale. Firstly, sourcing it gave lots of you something to work for. If our feedback is to be believed, Little Italy neighborhoods and Italian butchers across the nation have seen an influx of Frienjis in the past two weeks coming in search of this cured pork jowl. Substitutions included pancetta, thick-cut bacon, salt pork, and smoked duck breast.

Secondly, guanciale is salty—sometimes very salty. For the next iteration of this recipe, after all this feedback is compiled, it might just need to come with a “proceed with caution” warning when it comes to the salting. If there's a Frienji reading this who has not tested these recipes yet, beware of the salt content the guanciale alone will provide!

Something we don’t see too often in these feedback surveys is notes on the required equipment. That changes today! For each variation, many Frienjis opted to use a 10-inch skillet, as it was what they had on hand, over the recipe’s recommended 12-inch skillet. As a result, there was less flexibility (and understandable frustration) when mixing and emulsifying in the pan. This feedback is incredibly valuable, as it was such a common complaint it would surely translate to the general public who will eventually be trying these recipes themselves!

About The Tteok...

You may have noticed the two variations mentioned above had 32 and 30 feedback submissions each. Which means, out of 69 total submissions, only seven are left for variation #3, tteok alla gricia. Oh ye Cookbook Clubbers of little faith!

Out of the seven submissions, four Frienjis rated the dish “better than expected” and two rated it “exactly as expected.” Joanie is planning on making more modifications following this technique in the future, and Gary praised the recipe as being that rare combination of both simple and novel. Porcini rated it their favorite of the three variations and, possibly, their favorite Cookbook Club recipe of all time!

Only one Frienji submitted a decidedly negative review and, even then, the main complaint was that the finished dish was underwhelming and lacked contrast. But, I don’t say any of this to try and convince you to make the dish. In fact, I think the most helpful feedback we can record here is why you have an initial hesitation to doing so. This is a generally adventurous group, so this should be a good learning lesson for our team. Drop a comment below, share in the chat, or send us a private message to explain: Is it access to ingredients? Is it lacking faith in the flavor profile? We’re tough and we can take your honest feedback!

Show Us Your Dish!

From left to right: Brittany's, Andreas's, and Robert's pasta alla gricia con funghi e shoyu. Andreas notes, for their final dish, they added a dusting of the dried porcini powder from the hambagu recipe (Cookbook Club recipe #2).

Trinity's, Brian's, and Pascha's asparagus and rigatoni alla gricia. Trinity used smoked duck breast instead of guanciale, but reports it was missing the depth of aged flavor that guanciale or pancetta would typically add.

And Andrew's tteok alla gricia, served up on some beautiful tableware to boot!

Get Ready to Grill!

Our Cookbook Club is about to enter the summer season for the first time and you bet we're going to take advantage of it with our upcoming recipes. Until then, you can always find previous recipes, their feedback forms, and results in the Cookbook Club collection here on Patreon.

— Erin and the entire Cookbook Club Team