Spaghetti all'Assassina
My spaghetti all’assassina, the crispy, spicy pasta from Bari. Dry spaghetti cooks straight in a chilli, garlic and tomato sauce in one pan.
Ingredients
Directions
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- Step 1: Boil a jug of water.
- Step 2: To a stainless steel frying pan, add ¼ cup olive oil, chilli flakes and 3 finely grated cloves of garlic. Place over a medium heat and stir until aromatic. Add the tomato paste and stir for 30 seconds.
- Step 3: Add the tomato passata with a ¼ tsp of salt and bring to a low simmer.
- Step 4: Once simmering, add the dry spaghetti with ½ cup of water. Leave the spaghetti to gently soften for 5 minutes.
- Step 5: Stir the pasta through the sauce with another splash of hot water (approximately ½ cup of water).
- Step 6: Continue stirring and adding water as the pasta cooks. The sauce will begin to stick to the pan. Use a flat wooden spatula to scrape the fond off the base of the pan and stir it through the sauce. The aim is to balance the consistency of the sauce with the time it takes to cook the pasta; so keep adding water splash by splash until the pasta has cooked. The pasta will stick to the pan, so use a fish slice to scrape the crispy bits off the bottom and fold it through the sauce.
- Step 7: The dish is ready when the pasta is cooked, there’s plenty of sauce to coat the spaghetti and there are crispy pieces of pasta throughout the dish. Add more water to thin the sauce or continue reducing as needed.
- Step 8: Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt as needed. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil to serve.
Equipment
- Stainless steel pan
- Kettle or pot for boiling water
- Fine grater Zester $45.00
- Wooden spatula
- Fish slice Fish Spatula $40.00
- Tongs
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Chef’s Tips
Recipe notes
Stay with the pan
This isn’t a set-and-forget recipe. As the pasta cooks, the sauce reduces and everything wants to stick to the pan. That’s the point, but you need to keep an eye on it to get crispy edges without burning.
Add the water splash by splash
Don’t add all the water at once. You want the pasta cooked through at the same time the sauce has reduced, without the pasta overcooking or the sauce ending up too wet. Adding small amounts as you go is the only way to get that balance.
Use boiling water
Make sure the water you add is boiling or very hot. Cool or lukewarm water drops the temperature of the pan, slows the cooking and stalls the frying, which makes it much harder to get those crispy edges.
Storage
This is best eaten straight away, as the crispy edges soften once it sits. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Reheat in a hot pan with a splash of water, letting it catch on the base again to bring back some of the crispiness.
Ingredient notes
Spaghetti
Use a standard dried spaghetti rather than a thin variety. It needs to handle about 15 minutes of stirring and scraping in the pan, and thinner pasta tends to overcook and break apart before the crispy edges have time to form.
Tomato paste and passata
The tomato paste goes into the hot oil for 30 seconds, which cooks out its raw taste and deepens the flavour. The passata becomes the cooking liquid for the pasta. The natural sugars in both are what caramelise and stick to the base of the pan, so they’re where most of the flavour comes from. Use a smooth passata without added herbs or seasoning.
Chilli flakes
Chilli is a big part of this dish, so 2 teaspoons gives it a good kick. The flakes go into the cold oil with the garlic and warm through together, which carries the heat through the whole sauce. If you prefer it milder, start with 1 teaspoon. You can add a pinch more at the end, but you can’t take it out.
FAQs
Can I use a non-stick pan?
How do I make it less spicy?
Is spaghetti all’assassina vegan?
About this recipe
Spaghetti all’assassina comes from Bari in Puglia. The name translates to “assassin’s spaghetti”, a nod to the chilli heat and the charred, crispy edges. Instead of boiling the pasta separately, the dry spaghetti goes straight into a pan of chilli, garlic and tomato and cooks in the sauce, similar to the way you’d make a risotto. As the sauce reduces, the tomato sugars caramelise on the base of the pan and the pasta fries in the oil, giving you crispy, slightly blackened pieces through every serve.
It takes about 20 minutes, uses a handful of pantry staples and only one pan, but it does need your full attention. I add boiling water a splash at a time, scraping the fond off the bottom of the pan and folding it back through the sauce. The goal is to have the pasta cooked at the same moment the sauce is thick enough to coat it, with plenty of crispy bits throughout. It’s vegan as written.
Keywords: Spaghetti all'Assassina, Dinner, Italian, Pasta, Tomato, One Pan, Spicy, Quick, Spaghetti all'assassina recipe, crispy spicy spaghetti, Bari spaghetti all'assassina, one pan tomato spaghetti, spaghetti with chilli garlic and tomato, Italian crispy pasta, spicy tomato pasta
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