Amatriciana sauce, known in Italian as amatriciana (matriciana in Romanesco dialect),[2] is a sauce made with tomatoes, guanciale (cured pork cheek), pecorino romano cheese, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, dry white wine, and salt.

Originating in the comune (municipality) of Amatrice (in the mountainous province of Rieti of the Lazio region), the amatriciana is one of the best known pasta sauces in present-day Roman and Italian cuisine.

In papal Rome, the grici were sellers of common edible foods,[5] who got this name because many of them came from Valtellina, at that time a possession of the Swiss canton of Grigioni.

The sauce—nowadays named also amatriciana bianca[6]—was, and still is, prepared with guanciale (cured pork cheek) and grated pecorino romano.

[8] The first written record of pasta with tomato sauce can be found in the 1790 cookbook L'Apicio Moderno by Roman chef Francesco Leonardi.