Pasta all'amatriciana

The name of this dish comes from the name of a town in Central Italy - Amatrice.  Amatriciana sauce is normally used for Bucatini type of pasta but if you cannot find them try spaghetti, it's also used sometimes. I didn't have bucatini, so..... This recipe is quite controversial in Lazio (central region of Italy): they may change onion for garlic or bucatini for spaghetti... Some put only Pecorino, the others Pecorino and Parmigiano together... Sometimes they even say that the best way of cooking this dish is WITHOUT tomato... In any case if you prepare this dish differently then call it with a different name!! The one without tomato, for example, is called Gricia in Rome...

 
INGREDIENTS:
 (for 2 persons)

50g guanciale (cheek non-smoked bacon)
1/2 onion 
1 glass tomato puree
EVO oil
160g bucatini / spaghetti
Parmigiano cheese
Pecorino cheese
chilli
salt
  
Note: What is guanciale? It's an Italian non-smoked bacon prepared with the pig's cheeks.... sounds awful but we never eat it raw, only as a part of a dish to add some more richness and flavor t it. If you cannot find guanciale anywhere, you may use Pancetta, that is uncooked processed Italian bacon. Or some other uncooked cured bacon.  
 
1. Start cooking spaghetti/bucatini.
Note: See some info about pasta here

2. Chop onion and guanciale into small pieces.
3. Pour some EVO oil into the frying pan and add onions and guanciale together, then stir fry them till they become golden in color. Add some chilli to taste.
4. Add tomato puree to the pan and 50ml of water, it will evaporate while cooking but the sauce will result of a right consistency. 
5. The important point is to add a couple of pinches of sugar to the sauce besides salt. Sugar neutralizes the acid taste of tomato.
6. Mix pasta with the sauce and serve, add some mixed Parmigiano and Pecorino cheeses.

 Note: Pecorino cheese has a strong taste as it's made of sheep milk. You may either follow my example and use both cheeses to have milder taste or stick to the traditional recipe and use only Pecorino.