Once again a product of Italian cooking crosses the borders, landing overseas and reaching America with great success: let's talk about spaghetti all'assassina, the recipe for Apulian origin, and in particular Baese, who conquered the pages of the prestigious New York Times.
The New York Times article
The American journalist Steven Raichlen, after having tasted the delicious spaghetti all'assassina, tasted the 2.0 version (with stracciatella) cooked by Celso Laforgia, in a restaurant on Via Nicolai in the Apulian capital, wanted to dedicate an article to it in the New York Times in food section.
"Laforgia breaks every rule. Her spaghetti is not soft and ivory-colored, but crunchy like breadsticks and dark like ebony – writes Raichlen – He doesn't cook them in boiling water, but burns them raw in the pan.".
The recipe had already been released some time earlier by the Italian-American actor Stanley Tucci who celebrates his Italian origins and great passion for cooking on his show on CNN “Searching for Italy”.
The origins of spaghetti all'assassina
This pasta preparation, typical of the city of Bari, has a very interesting history. The name derives from the fact that the spaghetti is very spicy due to the presence of chili pepper in the sauce, also flavored with fried garlic.
The recipe was born fifty years ago thanks to the work of Enzo Francavilla. They are not simple spaghetti with tomato sauce, but very particular spicy, crunchy and above all burnt spaghetti. The customers, seeing them, exclaimed against the chef: "You tried to kill us”. Here is the killer pasta. The spaghetti is in fact cooked in an iron pan and following the best practices using the risotto technique which creates a tasty crust. To make them better, an Academy was even created.
They are a typical first course with an irresistible flavor and easy to prepare. Forgotten for over thirty years, spaghetti all'assassina has returned to the fore in recent years, so much so that it has become the protagonist of some novels! Today they are found on the tables of the best Italian restaurants offered in the various menus.
It is a dish that has become part of the Italian culinary tradition also consumed abroad.
Ingredients and recipe
INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PEOPLE:
• 400 gr. of spaghetti
• 150 g of tomato puree
• Tomato concentrate
• Oil, Garlic, Chili Pepper, Salt
Prepare the pasta cooking water by mixing two tablespoons of tomato puree with the water. Heat olive oil, garlic and chili flakes in a pan. Deglaze with a ladle of pasta cooking water and add the uncooked spaghetti. Toast them lightly, gradually adding hot water until the spaghetti reaches the desired level of donation.
Enjoy your meal!
