Spaghetti Assassina
I had never heard of this pasta dish until visiting Bari, a seaside city in Puglia in southern Italy. It’s simple, spicy and a perfect quick weekday meal, and the only thing that gets remotely assassinated is your pan after cooking it (and don’t use a no-stick pan, since it can’t take the high heat), but it’s nothing a 15-minute soak in soapy water can’t fix.
Serves:
4 as a main,
6 as a starter
Prep Time:
Under 15 minutes
Cook Time:
15 minutes
The traditional method calls for cooking the pasta from it’s dry state right from the package, but a Calabrian friend said that he par-cooks the spaghetti for 3 minutes, to make it easier to manage (and to fit into a pan), so I’ve adopted his technique with great success. We both agree that for an even better burn, reheat the pasta the next day – it’s drier and sticks less to the pan.
Notes: Season to taste and serve sprinkled with toasted breadcrumbs (our favourite) or grated Parm.
Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g) good quality dry spaghetti
- coarse salt
- 1 ½ cups (375 mL) plain tomato passata
- 2 Tbsp (30 mL) tomato paste
- 1 tsp sugar
- 6 Tbsp (90 mL) extra virgin olive oil
- 4-6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 ½ tsp (or more) red pepper chili flakes
- Toasted breadcrumbs or grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, for serving
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1
Bring a large pot of salted water up to a boil. Boil the spaghetti for 3 minutes, then drain, reserving 1 ½ cup (375 mL) of the pasta water.
Step 2
Stir the passata, reserved pasta water, tomato paste and sugar together and set aside.
Step 3
Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high to high heat and add the olive oil. Add the garlic and chili flakes and stir with a wooden spoon for a minute.
Step 4
Add the pasta and stir one minute to coat well with the olive oil. You may find it easier to use a pair of tongs and your wooden spoon to stir the pasta without breaking it.
Step 5
Add the passata a ladleful at a time and cook down the liquid before adding more, stirring the pasta occasionally. You can tell when it’s time to add more passata when you see the chili oil separate out from the almost-dry sauce. Continue doing this until all of the liquid has been added, testing the doneness of the passata as you go, in case you don’t need to add the full amount, or perhaps add a little more – this takes about 10 minutes. As you go along, stir the pasta only occasionally, to give the spaghetti a chance to stick and burn at the bottom a little.
Step 6
After all of the liquid has been added and cooked down, cook the spaghetti a final 2-3 minutes on high heat, stirring a little, to get that final burn on it.
