From a novice cook to a restaurant pro, everyone learns the same basic rules of pasta making: boil water, add salt, add pasta, and cook until al dente. But what if I were to tell you that there’s another, weirder way to cook, or dare I say, burn pasta. Here’s a method from a region of Italy that takes the rules and throws them out with the pasta water. If you want to turn ho-hum pasta into a deep and complex dish without fancy ingredients, try this pasta cooking method.
Facing the Adriatic sea, Puglia’s city of Bari is a port town full of rule-breaking for the better. This pasta dish is an emblematic symbol of such defiance, within culinary means. Instead of the traditional cooking method, this Spaghetti all’Assassina pasta is cooked like risotto. This approach is like pasta wizardry — it results in a complex pasta that’s crunchy in texture and biting with heat. Don’t worry, despite the eccentric name, there’s no assassinating or murdering involved. The name itself is dramatic, and the historical origins are far from clear, but it’s been safely agreed that this dish is a 20th-century invention.
To start, you mix up your pasta sauce which couldn’t be simpler. It’s just water, tomato paste, and a pinch of salt. Next heat oil and aromatic ingredients like chili and garlic until fragrant, and then add a bit of the pasta sauce, be careful it bubbles a bit.
Once the sauce starts simmering, you drop the raw and uncut spaghetti lengthwise into the pan. The hardest thing about this pasta dish is finding a pan whose diameter can hold unbroken long-strand pasta, but a large sauté pan will work.
Now you let the pasta sit and crisp up. Make sure you don’t skimp on the olive oil, or else you’ll never be able to remove the pasta from the pan. Once the pasta starts to get dark, use a spatula and a pair of tongs to flip the pasta over to crisp on the other side. You’ll have to flip the pasta a couple of times to get a majority of the strands crisped up.
When the pasta is at the desired level of blackened and well-burnt, you can start adding spoonfuls of tomato sauce to the pasta. You don’t want to dump all of the sauce in, which will ruin the texture you created. Gradual additions of liquid will help cook the pasta without making it a soggy mess. Throughout the whole process, you’ll want to keep turning the pasta, this will prevent the pasta from sticking and incorporate the sauce more evenly.
Once the pasta is softened, you’re ready to serve! Twirl it into a bowl and garnish with some fresh olive oil.
To get a full look at all of the steps of this recipe, you can watch the video below.