Chef Christopher Lee was eager to put his own spin on pasta all’Amatriciana through a few strategic tweaks. For one, the traditional guanciale is replaced with sweet sausage links, which deliver “another layer of flavor and the meat base you always look for in a good sugo,” he says. Other ingredients are dictated by what the chef has on hand. For this recipe, he incorporated peas into the tomato sauce but says a number of ingredients (asparagus, fava beans, artichokes, olives, etc.) could be easily substituted. Mezzi rigatoni pasta is cooked in the sauce for a super-flavorful but not too saucy consistency. “The shape needs to trap the sauces, so the pasta will be flavorful and moist,” he explains.
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