Spaghetti all’Assassina

Name: Spaghetti all'Assassina
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 4 people
Ingredients: 700 g passata (tomato puree) (divided (one standard bottle of Italian passata is 700 g)); 900 g water; 60 g tomato paste; 2 teaspoons salt; 100 ml extra virgin olive oil (plus more for finishing); 4 cloves garlic (2 minced and 2 whole); 1 to 2 dried hot peppers (or to taste); 1 teaspoon ½sugar; 500 g dried spaghetti; 35 g grated Pecorino cheese (plus more for serving)

3 Comments

25 August 2024

Spaghetti all’Assassina has been having a moment. Well, if I’m honest, it’s been having a moment for about a year and a half now, judging from the dates of various recipe posts. I was going to be early to the party given that I took the photos for this post more than two years ago! Working on my second cookbook took up most of my available time and, once again, the blog suffered.

*Alberobello, a town in Puglia, is famous for its stone trulli houses. (Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)*

I just began work on my third cookbook, but I have made a commitment to myself to post regularly on the blog, cookbook or no!

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Spaghetti all’Assassina is iconoclastic, both in its name and in its preparation. It seems mostly clear that it made it into the public eye in the 1960s in Bari, the capital of Puglia, the region that occupies the “heel” of the boot that is Italy, most probably at restaurant Al Sorso Preferito. Not much else is clear.

According to one account, chef Enzo Francavilla of Al Sorso Preferito created the dish by accident in 1967. He allegedly burned a spaghetti dish so badly that extra peperoncino (red pepper) was added to save it. It was then served to the staff who liked it so much that it became a regular dish on the menu.
Chef Enzo Francavilla himself says he invented the dish in 1967 when two customers at the restaurant asked for pasta.
Another version suggests that the restaurant’s owners discovered the recipe when a neighboring rotisserie closed down, tried it out, and liked it.

*Octopus meatballs (polpette di polpo) at Il Polpo restaurant in Gallipoli, Puglia.*

The name spaghetti all’assassina has a few potential explanations:

It may refer to the “killing” or burning of the pasta during the cooking process.
Some say it’s due to the dish’s spiciness, which is “killer” hot.
One story claims that customers joked that the flaming hot spices were the chef’s way of “killing” them.

*An Aperol spritz was a welcome relief on a very hot August day in Alberobello.*

What makes this dish truly unique is its unconventional cooking technique. The process is similar to making risotto. In fact, pasta all’assassina belongs to a category of pasta dishes called pasta risottata (pasta risotto-style). The pasta is not boiled but cooked directly in a pan with small amounts of liquid added, just like risotto. What differentiates pasta all’assassina is that it is cooked with the goal of caramelizing, and possibly charring, the sauce and/or pasta, unlike risotto.

*An amazing tiramisù at Siné restaurant in Alberobello, Puglia.*

For decades, spaghetti all’assassina remained a local specialty in Bari. However, in 2013, a physicist and food enthusiast named Massimo dell’Erba created a Facebook group called Accademia dell’Assassina (Academy of the Assassin) to promote the dish. This social media presence helped spread awareness of the dish beyond Bari both in Italy and internationally.

There are several variations of spaghetti all’assassina that have emerged over time.

Variations on the traditional recipe include:

Spiciness can vary from very spicy to mild. Note though, that the food in Puglia is not traditionally spicy so a “very spicy” pasta dish from that region would not really be very hot for true chileheads.
Charring can range between a deeply charred, even burnt, pasta to just a light browning of the sauce.
Tomato intensity varies due to the amount of tomato and type of product, typically tomato paste vs. tomato puree (passata in Italian).

*Although it doesn’t look different, this plate of spaghetti with mussels, at Il Polpo restaurant in Gallipoli, was the best spaghetti with shellfish that I have ever eaten!*

Some chefs have adapted spaghetti all’assassina by adding other ingredients such as broccoli rabe, seafood, fried olives, cherry tomatoes, and stracciatella cheese.

In May of this year, I had the opportunity to eat spaghetti all’assassina in Puglia, the region where it originated. I made two trips to the town of Alberobello. On the second trip, Ryan Castillo, a chef friend from Rome made a reservation for me at restaurant Siné. The trip lasted four days and I ate three days in a row at the restaurant. The only reason it wasn’t four days is that they are closed on Wednesdays! I obviously loved the food. Alberobello is a heavily touristed town so to find a restaurant that makes great food not aimed specifically at the tourist crowd is very welcome.

Spaghetti all'Assassina

While I like getting the sauce caramelized and quite brown in spots, I don’t like actually burning the dish as it imparts a bitter flavor that is overwhelming. Chewy bits of pasta are good, too, but not really crunchy and hard. I use both tomato puree (passata) and tomato paste to create a balanced tomato flavor. This is not a dish that calls for super-premium bronze die extruded pasta. However, a pasta that is slow-dried, such as de Cecco, works well. The traditional pan for making spaghetti all’assassina is cast iron or carbon steel but I prefer to use a heavy non-stick pan large enough to hold the spaghetti flat on the bottom.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

700 g passata (tomato puree) divided (one standard bottle of Italian passata is 700 g)
900 g water
60 g tomato paste
2 teaspoons salt
100 ml extra virgin olive oil plus more for finishing
4 cloves garlic 2 minced and 2 whole
1 to 2 dried hot peppers or to taste
1 teaspoon ½sugar
500 g dried spaghetti
35 g grated Pecorino cheese plus more for serving

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

700 g passata (tomato puree) divided (one standard bottle of Italian passata is 700 g)
900 g water
60 g tomato paste
2 teaspoons salt
100 ml extra virgin olive oil plus more for finishing
4 cloves garlic 2 minced and 2 whole
1 to 2 dried hot peppers or to taste
1 teaspoon ½sugar
500 g dried spaghetti
35 g grated Pecorino cheese plus more for serving

Instructions

Remove 150 g of passata from the bottle and reserve.
Combine the remaining passata with the water, tomato paste and salt to make a tomato “broth”. Bring to a simmer on low heat. Use some of the water to rinse out the jar to remove all the passata.
Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, preferably one that is large enough in diameter to hold the spaghetti flat. Add the minced and whole garlic and sauté until fragrant.
Add hot pepper, sauté briefly.
Add the reserved passata and sugar.
Cook until much of the liquid has evaporated and the passata has darkened somewhat.
Add the spaghetti, fanning it out. Add a ladle or two of the broth and cook on brisk heat until almost completely absorbed, frequently pushing the spaghetti around to keep it from sticking together.
Proceed in this way, adding broth a bit at a time and occasionally turning the spaghetti over, until it is al dente. During this time, you should begin to notice the fragrance change toward more caramel notes.
During the last few minutes, allow the pasta to sizzle enough to create some very dark spots. Note, if there is not enough broth, bring some water to a simmer and finish cooking the pasta with that.
Off heat, add Pecorino and more liquid if necessary to create a bit of sauce.
Drizzle each serving with some additional extra-virgin olive oil and pass more grated Pecorino at the table.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

1 Comment

21 March 2023

Cacio e Pepe, Pasta alla Gricia, Spaghetti all’Amatriciana, and Spaghetti alla Carbonara are the Holy Quaternity of Roman pasta dishes.

The sauce for Cacio e Pepe is little more than Pecorino Romano cheese emulsified into some of the pasta-cooking water to make a glossy sauce. Pasta alla Gricia adds cured pork, usually guanciale, to Cacio e Pepe. Amatriciana adds tomato to Gricia while Carbonara adds egg to Gricia.

And there you have it, arguably the four most important pasta dishes of Roman cuisine.

The origins of Spaghetti alla Carbonara are murky. Given the obvious relationship between these four pasta dishes one might think that there’s not much to talk about, one just naturally leading into the other. However, there is some intriguing evidence, and a little speculation, about the origins of Carbonara.

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The evidence and speculation go like this. During the Allied liberation of Rome during WWII, the bacon and (powdered) eggs of American GI rations were combined with pasta to make a proto-Carbonara. Some Italians agree with this, and some do not. Those who do not usually insist that the cured pork product of choice is guanciale (cured pork jowl) not pancetta (cured pork belly) let alone American bacon.

But think about it. How likely is it that the Romans had any cured pork hanging around near the end of WWII? It’s more likely that they consumed anything that was consumable by then. The existence of guanciale in any significant quantity is unlikely. In addition, the first reference to Spaghetti alla Carbonara appeared in the newspaper La Stampa in 1950, indicating it was a favorite of American GIs.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Spaghetti alla Carbonara existed prior to WWII and was made with guanciale. After the Allied liberation of Rome, it’s reasonable to see how GI rations of (powdered) egg and bacon could have been substituted for fresh eggs and guanciale. It’s also possible, even probable, that if it existed before the 1940s, Carbonara wasn’t written about because it was part of the cuisine of the poor (cucina povera). Despite our current fascination with traditional cuisine, until recently culinary history largely focused on foods eaten by the upper classes, not the poor.

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Unless more evidence comes to light, we may never know the origins of Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Even so, there are some things we can say definitively:

Adding cream to Carbonara is an abomination!
If not the original meat, American bacon has a legitimate place in the history of Carbonara.
Carbonara is delicious, whether made with guanciale, bacon, or pancetta. Yes, each is different but each is delicious! I’ve used all of them. I prefer bacon but I’ll never turn down a well-made dish (or three) of Spaghetti alla Carbonara regardless of what cured pork product went into it.

The most challenging part of making carbonara is to incorporate the eggs, getting them to thicken into a sauce without either remaining raw or turning into scrambled eggs. I’ve got a little trick that eliminates these concerns.

Read on!

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Spaghetti alla Carbonara is one of the four classic Roman pasta dishes, along with Cacio e Pepe, Pasta alla Gricia, and Spaghetti all’Amatriciana. It can be made with guanciale, American bacon, or pancetta though guanciale and bacon probably have the greatest claim on tradition. My preference is bacon. If using guanciale, I sometimes decrease the amount by 10% because it usually has more fat than either bacon or pancetta.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

450 to 500 grams spaghetti
4 cloves garlic crushed
225 grams American smoked bacon or guanciale or pancetta
80 ml dry white wine
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
70 grams Pecorino Romano cheese
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley optional
2 teaspoons Freshly ground black pepper plus more to taste
salt as needed

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

450 to 500 grams spaghetti
4 cloves garlic crushed
225 grams American smoked bacon or guanciale or pancetta
80 ml dry white wine
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
70 grams Pecorino Romano cheese
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley optional
2 teaspoons Freshly ground black pepper plus more to taste
salt as needed

Instructions

Cut the bacon into matchstick-size pieces.
Sauté the bacon in a dry sauté pan until some fat renders.
Add the garlic and sauté until the garlic is quite golden, but not brown. Remove the garlic and reserve. If the bacon is not well browned, continue cooking.
Meanwhile, combine the eggs, egg yolks, Pecorino Romano cheese, 2 teaspoons black pepper, and reserved cooked garlic in a blender jar. Reserve.
When the bacon is brown, add the wine and remove from the heat unless you are adding the pasta immediately. The dish can be made several hours ahead to this point.
Cook the spaghetti in salted water until just shy of al dente.
Just before draining the pasta, reheat the bacon and cook off the wine.
Add the pasta to the bacon and sauté on medium to medium-high heat.
Add pasta-cooking water, about one ladleful at a time, and continue cooking the pasta, stirring frequently, until al-dente. There should be enough liquid to coat the pasta in a thick "sauce."
Just as the pasta reaches al dente, turn on the blender. Blend the contents thoroughly and then add about 120 ml (½ cup) of the hot pasta cooking liquid while the blender is still running.
Off the heat, add the blended egg mixture to the pasta along with the parsley, if using, and even more freshly ground black pepper.
Mix well to turn the eggs into a creamy sauce, adding pasta-cooking water if needed. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
Pour into a warmed serving bowl and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Ragù Bolognese: The Official Recipe

4 Comments

February 11, 2022

I’m a little more than halfway through a week’s visit to Bologna. Bologna is referred to as la dotta, la grassa, la rossa: the learned, the fat, the red.

“The learned” relates to Bologna as the seat of the oldest university in the western world and the top-rated university in Italy. It has a highly educated population.

“The red” refers to the color of the terra cotta tiles on many of the roofs.

“The fat” is well earned based on the food. This is the land of mortadella, ragù Bolognese, tagliatelle, tortellini, lasagna al forno (aka lasagna Bolognese), prosciutto, parmigiano reggiano, and balsamic vinegar of Modena among other traditional, and dare I say, famous foods.

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Let’s not forget gelato. While I don’t think Bologna can claim title to the originator of gelato, they have perfected a style made with eggs that is consummately smooth. A gelateria is often referred to as a cremeria in Bologna.

**Tagliatelle al Ragu at at Osteria dell’Orsa in Bologna.**

My main goal being here is to eat. I want to taste some of the iconic foods of the region in the cathedral to food that is Bologna. To that end, I’ve had dishes with ragù Bolognese three times in the last three days. Though there were slight differences, the preparations tasted amazingly similar. That got me to thinking about consistency.

I know that there’s an official recipe for Pesto alla Genovese which I reference in my post on pesto. That got me to thinking about other official recipes. After some internet sleuthing, I discovered that there’s an Italian Academy that, after substantial research, codifies and registers what it considers to be the official recipes for traditional dishes. (Of course there is! This is Italy. Food is paramount.) Access to these recipes is quite limited. (Of course it is! This is Italy. Food is rigorously protected.)

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My primary culinary interest is traditional recipes. Discovering the existence of this academy has been a revelation for me. So much so that I decided to occasionally post their recipes, translated into English with notes on ingredients and techniques as appropriate to enable my readers to recreate the taste of the original.

So much of what passes for Italian food in the States is far from the original.

**Lasagna al Forno (aka Lasagna Bolognese) at Trattoria Anna Maria in Bologna.**

I’ll be quick to add that credible variations on these official recipes exist but the very existence of the official ones sets a standard of comparison. Several years ago, I posted a recipe for Ragù Bolognese. You will see the similarity. The main differences in my version are a greater proportion of tomatoes and the absence of dairy. It is a very good ragù, and one that I continue to make on a regular basis. But today, I’m giving you the official recipe.

Enjoy!

(Photo: Erikatrioschi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Ragù Bolognese: The Official Recipe

Butchering in Italy produces different cuts from butchering in the United States. I’ve noted some US cuts of beef that would be appropriate based on the recommended Italian cuts. For those of you who want to try your hand at this, the original cuts of meat listed are cartella, panica, fesone di spalla, and fusillo. Broth in Italy is light. It is not an intensely flavored stock as might be common in much of French cooking.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

2 1/2 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

300 g coarsely ground beef diaphragm [e.g. hanger or skirt steak] or belly [e.g. plate or flank steak] or shoulder [e.g. chuck]
150 g pancetta diced then finely chopped
50 g carrot finely diced
50 g celery finely diced
50 g onion finely diced
300 g tomato puree
100 ml dry red wine
200 ml whole milk
Broth as needed
45 ml extra virgin olive oil or 50 g butter
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground, to taste
100 ml light whipping cream approximately 30% fat (optional, see below)

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

2 1/2 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

300 g coarsely ground beef diaphragm [e.g. hanger or skirt steak] or belly [e.g. plate or flank steak] or shoulder [e.g. chuck]
150 g pancetta diced then finely chopped
50 g carrot finely diced
50 g celery finely diced
50 g onion finely diced
300 g tomato puree
100 ml dry red wine
200 ml whole milk
Broth as needed
45 ml extra virgin olive oil or 50 g butter
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground, to taste
100 ml light whipping cream approximately 30% fat (optional, see below)

Instructions

Sauté the pancetta in a heavy-bottomed pot, approximately 7-8 inches in diameter (20 cm). Render as much fat as possible without browning the pancetta. A little gold color is fine.
Add the olive oil or butter along with the carrot, celery, and onion. Sauté gently until softened, without browning, approximately 10 minutes.
Add the beef and mix well. Sauté until it sizzles (that is, until all liquid has evaporated and the beef begins to cook in the fat).
Add the wine and cook gently until it completely evaporates.
Add the tomato puree. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for two hours, adding broth as needed when the ragù becomes too thick.
During the last few minutes add the milk. This will counteract the acidity of the tomatoes.
Taste and adjust the seasoning.
If the ragù is going to be used for dried pasta (instead of fresh pasta or lasagna), it is customary to add the cream, otherwise not.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Ragù alla Bolognese

4 Comments

March 11, 2020

I grew up eating exactly one type of tomato sauce for pasta: my mother’s long-simmered, Italian-American-but-based-on-Southern-Italian (Calabrese, to be exact) ragù.

OK, OK, I sometimes ate Aunt Margie’s or Aunt Mamie’s version of the same sauce but we’re talking very minor variations on a theme.

My mother made pasta other ways than with ragù, most commonly with beans as in pasta e fagioli. But if we were going to eat pasta for pasta’s sake, not mixed with beans or in soup, it was ALWAYS served with her ragù.

**My recipe for Lasagna Bolognese will be posted in a few weeks. Get ready by making Ragù alla Bolognese and putting it in the freezer!**

When I went away to university at the age of 17 this is one of the first things that I learned to cook. Well, sort of. There’s a bit of a learning curve but even my first attempt was respectable.

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I now make scores of tomato-based sauces on a regular basis but I keep going back to three of them over and over:

My mother’s ragù.
Ragù alla Bolognese.
Ragù del macellaio (the butcher’s ragù).

There are so many childhood memories attached to my mother’s ragù that I can’t imagine a time when it wouldn’t be my favorite.

As far as I’m concerned, Ragù alla Bolognese is the gold standard for those tomato-based pasta sauces made with ground meat. (My mother’s ragù, on the other hand, is made with large pieces of pork. Other meats can be added but the pork is always there.)

**It is really important that the vegetables for Ragù alla Bolognese be cut in tiny dice, 1/8 on a side, often called brunoise.**

Ragù del macellaio is very good but, as you might expect for a sauce linked to a butcher, it is made with an array of meats—pretty much anything you have. I always end up with odds and ends of meat in my freezer, a bit of beef, a bit of pork, some sausage, a piece of chicken, some pancetta, and so forth. I grind them all up and make the sauce. The fact that it cooks, unattended, in a slow-cooker all day is an added bonus.

Just as there is an official Pesto alla Genovese recipe, there is an official Ragù alla Bolognese recipe that was codified in the 1980’s. The ingredients go something like this:

300 grams ground beef, preferably thin flank aka skirt (finta cartella in Italian)
150 grams pancetta, minced
50 grams carrot, minced
50 grams celery, minced
50 grams onion, minced
30 grams triple-concentrated tomato paste
1/2 glass red or white wine
180 ml milk
olive oil
salt and pepper

Every family in Bologna probably has a slightly different version.

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Some aspects of the recipe are notable. There is no garlic. There are no herbs. The amount of tomato is quite modest. Probably the biggest differences I see in credible recipes for Ragù alla Bolognese is whether or not to add milk or cream. The official version clearly includes it but many otherwise solid recipes do not.

This is not a “tomatoey” sauce. It’s really ground meat held together with a bit of tomato “binder.”

The version that I make most often varies somewhat from the official one. I add a hint of garlic and more tomato. I don’t typically use pancetta though it’s a great addition. I never add milk or cream.

So, I’ve done it, I’ve laid down a gauntlet. I’m advocating a recipe that’s not the official one. I can tell you, however, that it’s darn good.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ragù alla Bolognese

I make garlic oil and keep it in a squeeze bottle by the stove. It comes in really handy for cooking and for flavoring finished dishes. You can use plain extra-virgin olive oil if you wish. In fact, that would be more traditional than garlic. For added flavor, sauté 150 grams of minced pancetta in the olive oil until the fat is rendered. Remove the cooked pancetta. Brown the meat in the oil. Add the cooked pancetta to the meat just before adding the wine. Ragù alla Bolognese should be served with a wide long pasta such as mafalde or linguine.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

5 hours, mostly unattended

Servings

liters

Ingredients

1 kg ground beef 15% fat (or half beef and half pork)
30 ml garlic oil
500 ml full-bodied red wine
60 g butter
60 g celery cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
100 g carrot cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
100 g onion cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
3 kg canned San Marzano tomatoes passed through a food mill (3 x 35 oz cans)
1 bay leaf optional
salt
black pepper freshly ground

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

5 hours, mostly unattended

Servings

liters

Ingredients

1 kg ground beef 15% fat (or half beef and half pork)
30 ml garlic oil
500 ml full-bodied red wine
60 g butter
60 g celery cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
100 g carrot cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
100 g onion cut in brunoise (3 mm or 1/8 inch dice)
3 kg canned San Marzano tomatoes passed through a food mill (3 x 35 oz cans)
1 bay leaf optional
salt
black pepper freshly ground

Instructions

Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed sauté pan. Add the celery, carrot, and onion.
Sauté the celery, carrot, and onion in the butter until soft without browning. Reserve.
Heat the garlic oil, or extra-virgin olive oil, in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Add the beef and pork, if using.
While the meat is cooking, break it up into small bits.
Sauté the beef and pork, if using, in the garlic oil until a lot of fond develops.
Add the wine and boil it all away, loosening the fond from the bottom of the pan.
Pass the canned tomatoes through a food mill.
Add the sautéed vegetables, the tomatoes that have been passed through a food mill, and bay leaf, if using.
Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer 3 to 4 hours partially covered, stirring frequently, until reduced by 50%.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Basic Tomato Sauce

10 Comments

June 13, 2019

Basic Tomato Sauce isn’t sexy or exciting.

It’s a foundational ingredient that makes cooking a lot of other dishes much easier than they would otherwise be but, honestly, until a few months ago I never bothered to make it to have on hand.

That was a mistake!

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t have tomato sauces of various types in my freezer. I almost always do but they’re fully prepared special-purpose sauces like my mother’s long-simmered Southern Italian Ragu or my mother-in-law’s Salsa Friulana. If I needed a basic tomato sauce as the starting point for another sauce, I just did it in the moment.

That all changed as part of attending the Master of Italian Cuisine course at the Italian Culinary Institute (ICI). We made a basic tomato sauce (dubbed Simple Tomato Sauce by Chef John) by the gallons…ok, by the liters!

It keeps well. It freezes beautifully. It can be used in its own right as a sauce for pasta or meat or fish. Having it on hand allows you to whip up really tasty pasta sauces much more quickly. Give my recipe for Lupara a look, for example.

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Having foundational ingredients on hand has become more important since I returned from Italy. In an effort to fully integrate what I learned, and to expand my knowledge even further, I’ve been cooking dinner every night that we’re not otherwise engaged.

As an extension, this month we started something new as a way to catalyze learning more about Italian Regional Cuisine. We randomly select a Region of Italy by pulling a slip of paper out of an antique coffee jar. Most of the meals for the month need to be from that Region. This month’s Region is Piemonte. July’s Region is Molise.

**An antique coffee jar from my hometown of Johnstown, PA filled with slips of paper each containing the name of a Region of Italy.**

I start by researching the foods of the region. Waverley Root’s The Food of Italy is a big help but so are the introductions to many Italian regional cookbooks that I own. Once I have a grasp of the traditional raw ingredients and the classic preparations of the region, I start to curate a list of dishes I want to make. I go through my Italian regional cookbooks as well as Italian-language food websites to find multiple renditions of the dish then decide on how I will make it.

The dishes that I plan to make go on my calendar days in advance and get readjusted based on new ideas or ingredients from the market. Sometimes a dish requires purchasing hard-to-find ingredients, like anchovies cured in salt (of which there is an 800 gram tin sitting in my kitchen right now) or amarena cherries preserved in syrup (1000 gram tin plus a smaller jar from a different company).

The Piemontese have a knack for putting anchovies into almost everything except dessert. And if it doesn’t have anchovies, the dish probably has a bottle of Barolo, like the braised beef that I made a few days ago.

After cooking my way through Molise in July, I’ll be going to Italy for August and September. In August I’ll be learning traditional Tuscan dishes from Great Aunt Fidalma. September will find me be back at ICI for an guided independent study on food preservation. I’ll resume cooking my way through the Regions of Italy in October.

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Now that I’ve been convinced of the benefit of keeping foundational ingredients on hand, I’m upping my game. In addition to Basic Tomato Sauce I’ve started keeping infused oils. Currently, in squeeze bottles next to my stove, I have garlic oil and rosemary oil. Sometimes I use these to provide a little extra squirt of flavor on a finished dish. Sometimes I use them as I start sautéing ingredients. At this moment, I also have some mint oil on hand that I made to drizzle on a risotto with fresh peas.

**Infused oils at the ready next to my stove.**

I am eagerly anticipating our fall harvest of hot peppers so that I can make peperoncino oil, which is sometimes called Olio Santo (Holy Oil) in Calabria. Does that give you an inkling of the significance of hot peppers in the cooking of Calabria?

Although Olio Santo can be used within a few days of being made, it is better to let it age for a year. That means I’ll have to make an extra-large batch in the fall so that I have a fully aged stash to hold me until the oil from the 2020 harvest of hot peppers is ready in 2021!

I modified the ICI recipe for Simple Tomato Sauce just a bit to make it my own. I’ve changed the name to Basic Tomato Sauce. That’s the version I’ve posted here.

Basic Tomato Sauce

This makes enough sauce for about 1 kilogram (2-plus pounds of pasta). Most often this sauce is used as the base for other sauces. You can make it in larger quantities and freeze it for future use. While I prefer to pass the tomatoes through a food mill to remove the seeds and the occasional hard bit of tomato, you can skip this step. Just add the tomatoes to the sautéed vegetables, mashing them with a potato masher, and proceed as written. Since this sauce cooks quickly it is especially important that the vegetables be very finely diced.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Passive Time

15 minutes

Servings

quart (plus a bit more)

Ingredients

3 1/2 ounces onion finely diced
3 1/2 ounces carrot finely diced
2 ounces celery finely diced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 35-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes preferably San Marzano
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Passive Time

15 minutes

Servings

quart (plus a bit more)

Ingredients

3 1/2 ounces onion finely diced
3 1/2 ounces carrot finely diced
2 ounces celery finely diced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 35-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes preferably San Marzano
salt to taste
black pepper freshly ground to taste

Instructions

Sweat the onion, carrot and celery, with a large pinch of salt, in the olive oil until soft and the onion is golden, without browning, approximately 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, pass the tomatoes through a food mill.
There should be very little residual in the food mill.
Add the tomatoes to the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer, partially covered approximately 15 minutes.
Cool slightly and blend with an immersion blender or jar blender. Adjust salt and pepper.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Lupara

9 Comments

May 29, 2019

A Lupara is an 8mm sawn-off shotgun favored by La Cosa Nostra.

It’s also the name of a pasta dish.

**Lupara, the shotgun not the pasta. [Licensed from Bluedog, without changes].**

Interestingly, if you search for lupara recipes online you’ll only find a few and you’ll be hard-pressed to discover much commonality among the recipes. Some are spicy. Some are not. Some have sweet peppers. Some do not. Some have tomatoes. Some do not. And most of them will be made with spaghetti.

I learned to make lupara at the Italian Culinary Institute. It was among the first pasta dishes demonstrated during the early days of the three-month course. Made with short, cut pasta, like rigatoni, this rendition pays tribute to the shotgun for which it is named.

**Lupara, the pasta not the shotgun, as prepared at the Italian Culinary Institute.**

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This dish makes use of a Basic Tomato Sauce, just tomatoes and a few aromatics cooked briefly. You can make the tomato sauce in large batches and freeze it or you can make it as needed. Although the sauce can be used on its own in some dishes, it is deliberately not aggressively seasoned. This allows it to be used in a variety of preparations, with some final additional flavoring, without the sense that the same sauce is being used over and over.

I know this seems a little out of order, but I will publish the recipe for the Basic Tomato Sauce next week For my first blog post since returning from Italy, I wanted to feature a dish that grabbed my attention. This one did. It’s got a great story and a great flavor. Basic Tomato Sauce is good but it isn’t captivating (unlike a pasta dish named after the “Mob’s” favorite weapon!). Basic Tomato Sause is meant to play a supporting role in most situations and that’s just not the type of recipe that I wanted to start with.

**Lupara on the stove at the Italian Culinary Institute.**

This version of Lupara is intended to be spicy but spicy means different things to different people. There are two ways to build spice into this pasta. You can use one or both of them. The first method is to add dried, ground red pepper (peperoncino piccante in polvere, in Italian) during the final assembly of the pasta. The other is to add thinly sliced fresh hot pepper (peperoncino fresco) when sautéing the sausage. Getting authentic Italian peperoncino, powdered or fresh, is difficult in the States. You can substitute Cayenne pepper for the ground one and a variety of long, red (always red!) chile, such as Thai or Cayenne, for the fresh.

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This recipe also calls for fresh porcini mushrooms. These can be a challenge to find. Feel free to substitute thinly sliced portobello mushrooms. Though the flavor won’t be exactly the same, the dish will still be yummy! If you are lucky enough to find fresh porcini, I suggest buying a heap, thinly slicing them, and freezing them. They can be used in all sorts of cooked dishes, especially Trifulata which will hit the blog in the near future…as soon as I can find fresh porcini!! (You might notice portobello mushrooms in the pictures.)

This recipe requires a small amount of sausage. It’s not a major player though it does add a nice meaty background note to the sauce. Pick a good quality Italian-style sausage, sweet or hot. I think that sausage with fennel seed adds a nice flavor but that’s a matter of personal taste.

Buon appetito!!

Lupara

A lupara is an 8-gauge sawn-off shotgun associated with La Cosa Nostra (the “Mob”). Rigatoni resemble the barrel of a lupara. Adjust heat level to your taste. If you can’t find Italian powdered peperoncino piccante, substitute Cayenne pepper. For a different type of heat, add some thinly-sliced hot red chile when sautéing the sausage, instead of, or in addition to, the powered chile. If you can’t find fresh porcini, substitute portobello mushrooms. It is really important to use a very good quality Italian rigatoni, preferably an artisanal variety that is thicker than the usual boxed rigatoni to get the most benefit out of sautéing the pasta. If you want to make half as much pasta, freeze half the sauce. The recipe for Basic Tomato Sauce will be posted next week.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

Sauce

1 batch Basic Tomato Sauce
5 ounces Italian-style sausage casing removed and crumbled
1 1/3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 ounces fresh porcini thinly sliced
1 1/3 tablespoons butter
5 ounces dry wine red or white
5 ounces vegetable or chicken broth
4-5 leaves fresh basil chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Assembly

2 1/4 pounds imported Italian rigatoni preferably artisinal
4 cloves garlic crushed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup heavy cream
Peperoncino piccante to taste (ground red pepper)
3 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese freshly grated

For serving

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

30 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

Sauce

1 batch Basic Tomato Sauce
5 ounces Italian-style sausage casing removed and crumbled
1 1/3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 ounces fresh porcini thinly sliced
1 1/3 tablespoons butter
5 ounces dry wine red or white
5 ounces vegetable or chicken broth
4-5 leaves fresh basil chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Assembly

2 1/4 pounds imported Italian rigatoni preferably artisinal
4 cloves garlic crushed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup heavy cream
Peperoncino piccante to taste (ground red pepper)
3 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese freshly grated

For serving

Instructions

Sauce

Using a heavy-bottomed pot, sauté the sausage in the olive oil until colored.
Add the porcini, butter, and fresh peperoncini, if desired, and sauté 5-7 minutes. During this time, the sausage should brown much more and the mushrooms should give up much of their liquid and take on some color.
Add the wine and evaporate completely over high heat.
Add the broth, partially cover, and simmer until completely evaporated.
Add the Basic Tomato Sauce, basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer about 10 minutes. Reserve.

Assembly

Bring three quarts of heavily salted water (according to the Italians, it should taste like the sea) to a boil.
Meanwhile, sauté the garlic in the extra-virgin olive oil until light brown. Drain and reserve the oil.
Cook the rigatoni just until it no longer has a crunch in the center but is still far from done.
While the pasta is cooking, put the sauce in a large sauté pan and bring to a simmer along with peperoncino piccate to taste.
Drain the rigatoni, saving at least one quart of the pasta-cooking liquid.
Add the rigatoni to the sauce and increase the heat to medium to medium-high. Add pasta-cooking liquid, a ladle at a time, stirring the pasta frequently to finish cooking.
After adding a ladle or two of the pasta-cooking liquid, add the cream. Continue adding pasta-cooking liquid as needed until the pasta is just al dente and coated with a thick sauce.
Off the heat, mix in the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, cream, and the reserved garlic oil. You may need to thin with a little more pasta-cooking liquid as the cheese will thicken and emulsify the sauce.
Divide the pasta among serving bowls. Garnish each with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and sprinklings of Pecorino Romano cheese and fresh basil chiffonade.

Recipe Notes

Here's my recipe for Basic Tomato Sauce.

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Recipes

Angie’s Marinated Pasta Salad

2 Comments

December 12, 2018

After driving a circuitous route for two days (I’ll explain why in a minute), I got home to Santa Fe from Palm Springs last Wednesday to a surprise.

My husband and I had plans to attend the holiday party for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, where he is Associate Professor, on Friday. The surprise was that the party was a potluck and we had to bring a dish.

So, there I was on Wednesday evening, exhausted after two days of driving, with no prior knowledge that I had to produce a dish for a Friday event, coupled with the logistic challenge that I had to leave home around noon on Friday and ultimately make it to the party in Albuquerque by 7:00 PM with a dish in tow that I could neither refrigerate nor heat up!

It didn’t take long before I settled on my cousin Angie Catanese’s Marinated Pasta Salad. This is a recipe that I’ve been making for about 45 years and it never fails to please. It has so much stuff in it besides pasta that it’s almost a misnomer to just refer to it as a pasta salad!

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I went grocery shopping on Thursday morning, assembled the salad Thursday afternoon, and the rest is history!

You might also enjoy my cousin Angie’s recipe for Pickled Hot Peppers.

**The availability of pasta in many different shapes has ballooned over the decades. Cavatappi makes a great replacement for shells in this pasta salad.**

Now, for an explanation as to why you haven’t heard from me in two months and what will be coming up for the blog…

In early October I went to Palm Springs to complete recipe testing for the Trio Restaurant Cookbook. One can’t really test recipes for a cookbook at 8,000 feet in elevation so I spent five weeks in Palm Springs testing and finalizing over 125 recipes for the cookbook. I had intended to continue posting to the blog during this time but very quickly found it impossible to fit in anything other than grocery shopping, recipe testing, and note-taking!

I got back to Santa Fe a few days before Thanksgiving then, less than a week after Thanksgiving was back on my way to California to go to the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles to apply for a visa.

In early January I am going to Italy to attend a three-month intensive course in Italian cuisine geared toward professional chefs at the Italian Culinary Institute. Because I’ll be in Italy more than 90 days I need a visa.

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My visa appointment was Friday and I was planning on spending the weekend in Palm Springs then driving back to Santa Fe on Tuesday. The consular official said my visa would be ready by Tuesday so, rather than trust my luck (and my passport) to FedEx, I decided to drive back to Los Angeles to retrieve my passport.

It took me 3 hours and 45 minutes to drive the 122 miles from our home in Palm Springs to the consulate! I got my passport in about 5 minutes then did some shopping at Eataly, conveniently located across the street from the Italian Consulate. (I’d love to know who was responsible for securing THAT location!) I then reversed course and started the drive back to Santa Fe, passing within a few miles of our home in Palm Springs where I had started the day. I spent the night in Payson, Arizona then finished the drive Wednesday (which is when this story began).

**The entrance to the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles which is conveniently located across the street from Eataly!**

While I’m in Italy I will most likely be posting fewer recipes than usual. I hope to chronicle some of my experiences at the Institute and pass on some tips and pointers on Italian food. I hope you’ll stick with me during that time. When I return, I’ll be back to my regular schedule of posting recipes.

Oh, and by the way, judging from how the pasta salad disappeared at the party, I think it was a hit!

Angie’s Marinated Pasta Salad

There is so much “stuff” in this that it could easily be the basis of a light meal with just some bread and cheese. Angie’s original recipe called for shells but other types of medium-size pasta work just as well. In fact, I think the cavatappi are especially nice given their unusual shape. If you are making this when tomatoes are at their peak, use three medium-sized tomatoes in place of the cherry and grape tomatoes. You can use 2 cups of purchased Italian salad dressing instead of the homemade dressing if you’re so inclined, though the flavor will obviously be somewhat different.

Course

Pasta and Grains, Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces, Salads, Slaws and Dressings, Sides

Cuisine

Italian-American

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

10 minutes

Passive Time

16 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients

1 pound dry pasta such as shells, farfalle or cavatappi
1 cup diced sweet red onion
2 Bell peppers diced (red, yellow and/or orange add a nice color contrast)
1 pound multicolor cherry and grape tomatoes diced
3 stalks celery diced
1/4 pound Genoa salami diced
1/4 pound pepperoni diced
1/4 pound Provolone cheese diced
1/3 cup chopped oil-cured olives

Dressing

1 1/3 cups olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dry basil
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1 pinch dry rosemary crushed
1/4 cup minced parsley

Course

Pasta and Grains, Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces, Salads, Slaws and Dressings, Sides

Cuisine

Italian-American

Prep Time

1 hour

Cook Time

10 minutes

Passive Time

16 hours

Servings

people

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients

1 pound dry pasta such as shells, farfalle or cavatappi
1 cup diced sweet red onion
2 Bell peppers diced (red, yellow and/or orange add a nice color contrast)
1 pound multicolor cherry and grape tomatoes diced
3 stalks celery diced
1/4 pound Genoa salami diced
1/4 pound pepperoni diced
1/4 pound Provolone cheese diced
1/3 cup chopped oil-cured olives

Dressing

1 1/3 cups olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dry basil
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1 pinch dry rosemary crushed
1/4 cup minced parsley

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and set aside.
Cook the pasta in abundantly salted water until just cooked but still slightly al dente.
Meanwhile, cut-up all the ingredients.
Onion
Bell pepper
Tomatoes
Celery
Genoa salami
Pepperoni
Provolone
Oil-cured olives
When the pasta is cooked, drain and rinse in cool water to stop cooking.
Stir the pasta and diced onion into the dressing. Allow to cool to room temperature.
When the pasta is cool, stir in all remaining ingredients.
Refrigerate overnight before serving.

Recipe Notes

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Recipes

Louis Evangelista’s Pasta e Fagioli (“Beans and Macaroni”)

Salsa Friulana di Marisa (Marisa’s Friulan Tomato Sauce)

2 Comments

June 11, 2018

Ma’s spaghetti sauce. That’s what my husband calls it.

That’s pretty similar to what most of us of Italian heritage who grew up in the United States called the sauce that our mothers (yes, it was almost always the mothers) made most frequently.

It isn’t as if there aren’t more pasta sauces than one can count. It’s just that for everyone I know of Italian heritage, there’s one that stands out above the rest.

For my husband’s family, this is the one.

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It’s actually quite similar to Ivana’s sauce. Ivana is married to my mother-in-law’s cousin Olvino. Ivana grew up in Friuli but in a different town. There are subtle differences in her sauce and my mother-in-law’s sauce, but if you read both recipes you’ll certainly see the similarities.

My mother-in-law doesn’t remember when she learned to make this sauce, or even if she learned from her mother or her aunt. She does remember, however, that her father asked her how she could get married (she was engaged to my father-in-law) without knowing how to cook.

**My mother- and father-in-law on their wedding day (apparently before she knew how to cook)**

She got married, ultimately learned to cook, and then headed up the kitchen in Castleview, the restaurant that she and my father-in-law owned in Fox River Grove, Illinois. The restaurant was named Castleview because it had a view of an adjacent…you guessed it…castle…well, sort of a castle. For more information on the castle, you can look here.

**The Bettendorf Castle in Fox River Grove, Illinois**

By the time I came on the scene, it was difficult to catch more than a glimpse of the castle from the restaurant due to the growth of trees and other vegetation.

**Another view of the Bettendorf Castle**

My mother-in-law thought my version of her sauce was “pretty good.” She did note that it was thicker than hers; probably because I cook it longer but also potentially due to a different brand of tomatoes. If you want it thinner, cook it less or (my preference) just add more water or put a splash of pasta-cooking water in the bowl with the pasta and the sauce. (Just between you and me, when I’m putting dinner on the table using my mother-in-law’s sauce, I usually boil it down a bit because it seems a little thin to me!)

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In a few weeks I’ll be posting a recipe for Friulan Risotto that incorporates this sauce. Stay tuned.

Salsa Friulana di Marisa (Marisa's Friulan Tomato Sauce)

The amount of water needed will vary based on how thick the tomato puree is, how much liquid evaporates during cooking, and how thick or thin you like your sauce. Feel free to add more water during cooking if the mixture is becoming too thick. If the sauce is too thin uncover near the end of cooking and increase the heat to cook off more water.

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

3 hours

Servings

quarts

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds ground beef 93% lean
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/4 cups parsley leaves and tender stems lightly packed
2 small carrots coarsely chopped
2-3 ribs celery coarsely chopped
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
4-5 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 x 6 ounce can tomato paste
2 x 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon allspice or to taste, preferably freshly ground
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg or to taste, preferably freshly grated
3 inches stick cinnamon
5-6 cups water
1 bay leaf preferably fresh
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves coarsely chopped or 1 teaspoon dry basil
1 tablespoon salt plus more to taste
1 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground, plus more to taste

Course

Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces

Cuisine

Italian

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

3 hours

Servings

quarts

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds ground beef 93% lean
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/4 cups parsley leaves and tender stems lightly packed
2 small carrots coarsely chopped
2-3 ribs celery coarsely chopped
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
4-5 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 x 6 ounce can tomato paste
2 x 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon allspice or to taste, preferably freshly ground
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg or to taste, preferably freshly grated
3 inches stick cinnamon
5-6 cups water
1 bay leaf preferably fresh
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves coarsely chopped or 1 teaspoon dry basil
1 tablespoon salt plus more to taste
1 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground, plus more to taste

Instructions

Finely chop the parsley, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic in food processor.
There should be a bit of texture to the mixture, not a puree. Reserve.
Puree the crushed tomatoes in the food processor.
Rinse the cans out with some of the water. Add the water to the pureed tomatoes. Reserve.
Sauté the beef in the olive oil on high heat until no pink remains.
Add the chopped vegetables.
Sauté on high heat until all the liquid evaporates and then continue to sauté until the mixture darkens slightly and smells cooked.
Add the wine and continue to cook until the wine has evaporated.
Add the allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir well.
Add the tomato paste and sauté until it begins to smell sweet, approximately 5 minutes at medium-high heat.
Meanwhile, rinse tomato paste can out with some of the water and add it to the pureed tomatoes.
Add pureed tomatoes, bay leaf, oregano, basil and remaining water.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered for about 2 ½ hours, stirring every 20 minutes.
After about an hour of cooking, begin to taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve with the pasta of your choice.