Red Wine Spaghetti With Pancetta Recipe (2024)

The idea of adding 1 cup/240 ml of wine to 1 gallon/3780 ml of water (the standard volume for 1 lb/454 gm pasta) seems dubious. The wine is diluted 1:16. Pasta absorbs 1.25x its weight= 570 gm water if cooked al dente, so it absorbs 36 ml wine - the rest goes down the sink. So you've just wasted good wine and fuel from simmering the cooking water for 20 minutes. I would either use all the wine in Step 4, or reduce the cup of wine, skip Step 1, and add to boiling water with pasta in Step 5.

This is a variant of a classic Provencal recipe, which I learned from Patricia Wells' At Home in Provence. Use a bottle of sturdy Rhone wine, a can of tomatoes, handfuls of fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary), garlic, a bit of anchovy, and reduce. It yields the most intense and delightful flavors. The reduction takes a bit of time, but it's very easy to make.

I made the recipe as written and it was delicious (my pet peeve - those who say it was delicious and then list all the changes and substitutions they made). Will definitely add to my regular rotation. Used a pinot noir.

Delicious and easy. Another reviewer convinced me that a cup of good wine into the boiling water was a waste, so I saved that cup to enjoy with the meal. Glad I made the full recipe as I'm looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.

Actually, it is a variation on many many variations of pasta cooked in red wine, not on a particular restaurant's version. So the reason the Osteria de Benci version does not use quite the same ingredients is because ... it is a DIFFERENT RECIPE. I have been making a version of this for years that came from Michael Chiarello while he was operating Tra Vigne in St. Helena, Napa Valley, and he sourced it from Italy x multiple versions. D. Tanis is awesome and this recipe is great.

One of my favorite restaurants (Bar La Grassa in Minneapolis) makes their version of this, it’s life-changingly good! They add lightly toasted pine nuts at the end, which add a wonderful texture contrast. Give it a shot!

I love David Tanis style of cooking and I was very excited as I lay in bed this morning reading the NYT on my phone and saw this recipe. I knew I was going to make it for dinner tonight. It was wonderful. My partner is vegetarian, so I left out the meat, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. It was a classic David Tanis recipe. Not fussy, not hard to follow, nothing too exotic in the list of ingredients, and a very high taste to effort ratio. Thanks David!

Add a bit of white wine after sizzling the onions and let evaporate, this reeases the "sugar" in them.

I made this dish years ago and since then many times, as in a traditional buerre rouge the finishing with a bit of grated unsweetened chocolate makes tremendous sense. Who knew dry cheese goes so well with chocolate.

As someone in recovery, I would steer away from anything that used the word "drunken" in the recipe title. From what I have read, the pasta absorbs the full flavor of the red wine. As a friend, no sense taking a chance triggering someone who has worked hard to get sober.

McDonald has what you want.

I made a half recipe pretty much as directed. It was delicious. I used fettuccine which worked very well but the final cooking time is longer and you will need to save more pasta cooking water—a couple of cups. And I had a somewhat heavy hand with the butter. And don’t neglect the basil—I added about a quarter cup of basil chiffonade on top of each serving.

I made this for my family last night and it was both easy and absolutely delicious! Some notes: I added more garlic, doubled the tomato paste and added 10 oz of 1/2" - 3/4" diced Baby Bellos - which I sautéed with the pancetta. This gave the dish another layer of earthiness and complexity. I LOVE THIS recipe and will definitely make it again!

Also, consider using fettuccini or pappardelle instead of spaghetti. It has more surface area per ounce, which enables it to absorb more of the sauce.

Absolutely agree. Waste of wine. Use all the wine in the reduction, and reduce by more than half. You'll get a very intense sauce.

Made as written except pouring wine into water, just couldn't do it, and I forgot to add the butter. Maybe crucial. Found it a little dull -- perhaps if I were to cook it again I'd add a little more tomato paste, significantly more red pepper flakes and definitely include the butter.

Made again tonight after first seeing about 4 years ago — our unexpectedly returning guests who had departed in the am after a day of cancelled flights — loved it. Made it exactly as written, served with a heated baguette and a simple green salad. To the previous note writers who scolded putting the cup of red wine in pasta water, both my guests and I disagree. The scent of the simmering water and the color, along with the more intense final color of the presented pasta is a worthy addition.

Substituted roasted pine nuts for pancetta, per a suggestion in the comments. Delicious!

Halved recipe & it came out fine. The wine reduced more quickly though—nothing a little extra water couldn’t handle. No need to drain, just move the pasta with tongs directly into the sauce. Used thick spaghetti & feel this could hold up well to something thicker like bucatini. My half bottle of Merlot was a day past its prime & I couldn’t waste it, which led me to this recipe. Splashed a bit of lemon juice at the end to brighten. Delicious! Excellent midweek comfort after a long workday.

We made it for a California foodie, ethnic Italian friend. He loved it! We did too!!!!!

Cooked 1/4 of the recipe because I'm eating alone during Covid. This dish is so good, I can't believe I haven't heard of it before. Other than eliminating the cheese, which I don't eat, I wouldn't change a thing. I used Antinori Chianti. Since I used just a 1/4 of a bottle, I had plenty left to drink.

Made this today with a tuscan red blend we weren’t too fond of for drinking, but in this application it was fantastic! Made as written, but the pancetta was pre-sliced thin instead of cubed, and added wilted salad greens at the very end for a little bitterness. It was perfection. I might try anchovies instead of pancetta (added with the garlic/tomato paste), just for fun...

I made this last night for the first time, following the recipe exactly. We found the sauce very tasty, but the overall effect was much too rich. In making it again I intend to eliminate the olive oil altogether and just rely on the pancetta renderings to saute the onion and garlic -- that fat with the butter at the end should be more than enough. I also intend to reduce the parmesan by half. Wine in the pasta water is probably included to color the spaghetti.

Made this with a very cheap bottle of red - needed a little bit of sugar but was still good. Left out the pancetta as I am vegetarian and added a bit of chopped kale for some greens.

Remade again - smaller portion but this time with a yellow onion because that’s what I had. Came out amazing. So now I can attest that both shallots and yellow onions work. I would assume that white onion would be fine too. But I stick to my guns that bucatini is superior to spaghetti on this one.

Quick question: I've been having trouble finding red onions in this quarantine moment (what are people doing with all the flour, toilet paper, and red onions???).But I do have a lot of shallots (thank goodness!). Now, I realize that shallots are very different from red onions... but, does anyone know if shallots might be a good substitute? Should I mix some yellow onion with shallots? Help!

Very good and worked well with gluten free pasta

This was delicious! I made a one-third recipe.I only had a 1/3 bottle of disappointing syrah leftover, so I used that. I also didn't have any red onion, so I used half yellow onion and half shallot. I also used two bay leaves and the full recipe amount of garlic. I didn't bother adding wine to the pasta water, nor did I prep the pancetta as directed. Just put it in the pan and browned.This is one of my new favorite recipes for pasta and bad wine. Looking forward to making it again!

I'm not one of those people who's here to tell you how they modified the recipe you're about to make. I made it EXACTLY like it says. EXACTLY. It was just fantastic, I mean better than you can imagine. You should just follow this recipe, do it, you'll be so happy and your guests will think you're a wizard. Then, if you want to, modify it. But I don't need to hear about it.

So you've just wasted good wine and fuel from simmering the cooking water for 20 minutes.I would either use all the wine in Step 4, or reduce the cup of wine, skip Step 1, and add to boiling water with pasta in Step 5.