Pasta alla Zozzona

By John, 20 August, 2025
Region
Italy
Description

"Rigatoni alla Zozzona"Zozzona means a hot mess in Italian, and Pasta alla Zozzone is a rich delicious crowd pleaser of a hot mess! It's loaded up with everything to alarm your cardiologist: sausage, guanciale, pecorino romano, and egg yolks. There's tomato sauce too, so that's healthy.

This is from Lazio, land of the Big 4: Carbonara, Amatriciana, Gricia, and Cacio e Pepe. It's traditionally served with rigatoni or other short pasta. I used the wonderful Pasta Somma rigatoni from Gragnano. The pasta of Gragnano is hearty and toothsome and well able to support a rich sauce.

Yield
8 Servings
Preparation time
10 minutes
Cooking time
15 minutes
Total time
25 minutes
Ingredients
4 Egg Yolk
3 oz Pecorino Romano Cheese (Finely grated)
4 1⁄2 oz Guanciale (Cut into 1/4 inch lardons)
8 oz Hot Italian sausage (Skinned and sliced)
1 Medium yellow onion
20 oz Tomato Passata
1 lb Rigatoni
Instructions
  1. Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta.
  2. Mix the egg yolks into the grated cheese to make a smooth paste.
  3. Cook the guanciale to render its fat.
  4. Remove the sausage meat from its casing and cut it into bite-sized chunks.
  5. Remove the cooked lardons and add the sausage bits and onions to cook.
  6. Stir in the tomato passata. If the lardons are on the crunchy side, stir them in to soften.
  7. A couple of minutes before the pasta is done, use a slotted spoon or a hand-held strainer to strain it out of the water and into the pot of sauce. It will finish cooking here. Keep the water in the pasta pot hot, but it does'nt have to continue boiling.
  8. Add half a cup of hot pasta water to the sauce and stir it well. Keep stirring for 2-3 minutes to expose all of the almost cooked pasta to the sauce.
  9. Add 1/3 cup pasta water to the egg and cheese mixture to thin it out, and then stir that into the pasta-sauce mix for serving.
  10. Serve hot with more grated pecorino on the side.
Source

Traditional, with technique by Serious Eats