One of my new favorite pasta dishes is Pasta alla Gricia. I made this for myself tonight. I think it’s the perfect Italian pre-Thanksgiving antidote to the traditional meal tomorrow. The best article I have read on the topic is a post on Serious Eats, written by a chef with the un-Italian name of Sasha Marx.

To paraphrase an old hero of mine, the inimitable Yogi Berra, 90% of success is the right ingredients, and the other half is my culinary skill. This dish requires Guanciale, pork cheeks or hog jowls as they are commonly known. On a previous trip to Eataly Boston, I bought a small package and found them to be superb. Here’s what they look like:

This dish can be made with Spaghetti or Rigatoni. I chose Rigatoni tonight, and I was very fortunate to have a package of artisan-made Rigatoni from Pastaio Via Corta in Gloucester, MA. It made a world of difference.

The recipe was not difficult, but the technique was intriguing. The combination of rendered fat from the guanciale, the rich, starchy pasta water, and the grated Pecorino from Basilicata (I find Pecorino Romano too sharp for my taste) blended beautifully to coat the pasta.

The pasta was excellent, but it needed a little accompaniment, so I warmed up leftover braised eggplant, tomato and chickpeas, which added color, flavor, and the magic of vegetables to offset the degradations of unadulterated pork fat.