Crispy shallots, guanciale, and leek chitarra.
So we have some chitarra waiting.
We have a mug for the starchy, salty cooking water
to marry the pasta to the sauce.
Very important.
And we have guanciale.
What's guanciale?
Like these big fat things on my face.
They're the cheeks of pork.
They're pork cheeks.
You can use pancetta or guanciale.
Guanciale is a little fattier.
This guanciale,
you can see,
is a pretty meaty piece.
This is a little different because,
as you can see,
it's not only been cured,
but it's been sitting with herbs.
It has peppercorn, rosemary, bay.
Throw it in the freezer for a couple minutes
and let it firm up a bit,
and then you can cut it into strips.
So we want to take olive oil,
coat the bottom of a very large skillet,
and we're going to wait till that starts to ripple
just a bit.
It's over medium heat. It's not that high.
It's literally on the word medium, okay?
We're not screaming.
We're gonna let these guys render.
And we want that to go low and slow
because we really want all of that flavor
and the fat from those big meaty cheeks.
We want that because it's
what gives the dish its personality.
We're going to throw in, eventually,
a little fresh bay,
but the star of the show are leeks, okay?
Now, we use for one pound of pasta,
five or six leeks.
And when we use leeks, we want the light greens,
not the super tough ends.
We can trim that back a bit, right?
And we don't want the little hairy root end.
But barely trim that off. Barely.
So we put the knife on the board
and we move across the leek,
but the knife should not leave.
The tip of the knife should not leave the board.
Your little nubbers curled in
and we just zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip,
and rock back and forth to get to the end of the product.
Between a quarter and a half an inch.
You don't want 'em too skinny, too thin.
Just big mountain of leek is gonna go into the pan
and we're gonna let them melt.
We added a ton of leeks.
Like the pan is stuffed with leeks.
Five or six leeks.
And a couple of fresh bay leaves.
We cook off the pasta.
This should taste almost like seawater.
You need to season the water itself
because it seasons the pasta.
When we add salt to water, we want it to be boiling.
We want the water to be moving so that the salt doesn't sink
to the bottom of the pot and scar your pot.
So we're gonna take the chitarra.
We're gonna cook it a little less
than the package directions.
We got our cup so we can take the pasta water
and get the sauce to emulsify and coat
and bathe all of that delicious pasta in some extra flavor.
And we're going to add-
I sounded like Grover
(audience laughing)
The monsters at the end of the book (laughing).
(audience clapping)
What is the matter with me?
So now,
you know what helps leeks cook out?
Adding liquid.
Good thing we have some pecorino.
(audience clapping) Okay.
So pasta comes out.
Pasta goes back in the bowl,
or you can just take the pasta with tongs or a big spider,
and transfer it into the leeks.
I'm gonna dump everything in here
just for time's sake so we can get this done.
This is all of our guanciale, the 9 million leeks.
(audience clapping)
Where'd they put the olive oil?
Back here.
Can I have that fancy olive oil?
Thank you.
(audience softly laughing)
We'll be right with you.
(audience excitingly clapping)
So then we put in tons of the pecorino.
We squeeze in the lemon, cut side up.
We pull out the bay leaves.
They did their job.
Thank you, baby.
(audience clapping)
A little extra drizzle to get that
emulsification going with all of that
great flavor and fat from the guanciale,
the 9 million leeks, the cheese, the olive oil.
Come on, buddy, work with Mama.
Yeah.
(audience excitedly clapping)
Woo.
Yay.
The last thing I do
store bought or homemade crispy shallots.
(audience clapping)
They're just hanging out.
(audience excitingly yelling)
(audience clapping)