Spaghetti all’ Assassina

The greatest pasta dish of all time. Easy, yummy, easy…deeply flavored, very spicy and amazing.

Makes 2-3 servings

Ingredient List:

• 12 ounces spaghetti or vermicelli fine spaghetti
• 14 ounces tomato puree
• 1-2 tablespoon tomato paste/concentrate
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 garlic cloves peeled and 1-2 chopped, 1 left whole
• 1 fresh red chili pepper or ½ tablespoon flakes or according to taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 cherry tomatoes, optional

Step By Step Instructions:

Peel the garlic and chop 1-2 cloves finely. If using a fresh red chili cut into small pieces. Remove the seeds if you prefer it less spicy.

Prepare a broth made with water, ⅔ of the tomato purée (1:1), and the tomato paste and salt, and bring to a boil and simmer. You want the broth to be a bright red and tasty, but still a broth. This broth needs to be hot when you add it to the spaghetti, otherwise you will lower the cooking temperature for the pasta.

In a cast iron pan, add ½ cup of olive oil, 2 garlic cloves (one whole; one chopped), and red chili pepper according to how spicy you want your spaghetti to be. Cook the garlic over a high flame until golden then remove the whole garlic clove and pour in the ⅓ of undiluted tomato purée.

Spread the puree over the whole pan with a wooden spoon and let it reduce and thicken slightly. At this point put the uncooked spaghetti in the pan, distributing the pasta a way that it lies on top of the sauce. Note that the puree will spit when first poured into the pan so take care not to get burnt

Wait for the underside of the spaghetti to start caramelizing before turning it over. This must be done carefully, a little at a time using a spatula. Let the other side of the spaghetti start to crisp a little and then pour in a ladle of the hot tomato broth. It’s better not to pour it over the spaghetti but to add it to the sides of the pan.

At this point the spaghetti should start to soften enough that you can move and stir it gently with a wooden spoon. Move any pasta strands that might have stuck to the bottom of the pan and allow the tomato broth to spread. Once the tomato broth has reduced and the spaghetti starts to stick a little again add more broth.

Keep repeating this step (adding tomato broth and stirring the spaghetti) until the spaghetti is coated in the sauce and cooked. If you run out of tomato broth, you can add a little water. Note that when finished, this dish is relatively dry and crispy, not saucy.

The cherry tomatoes are interesting. I added them to the iron pan before starting on the pasta. I removed them from the pan and then just added them back when my spaghetti all’assassina was ready. This step is optional, but yummy.

Serve your spaghetti all’assassina immediately while hot.