A classic of my home. Very fast, easy, strong and good taste!
Ingredients for 1 person:
It's very simple: you cut peppers, anchovies, put some capers, pepper anchovies puree, oil, stir with fork and then you let it be while you cook spaghetti.
About water-salt quantity:
in general we don't measure it we put it roughly. If you put too much salt you must put some other water or add salt if it's too less . Anyway a good measure is 1 L of water every 100g of pasta. I used 140g of spaghetti, 15g of cooking salt, around 1,5 L water and was fine. Take note that this is an higly salted recipe so you don't want to put too much salt, anyway it's a bad idea to cook pasta without salt. Consider too that my father who ate the dish likes very salted things, so it could be good for less salted toppings. Here good to have a bit of experience.
Cooking spaghetti:
I don't know how much in America you are used to cooking pasta nor which type you find... Let's say a thing: pasta producers are liars (just joking
)! They often declare a cooking time wich is clearly shorter than proper one. Maybe because often if you cook it too much it sucks,
especially for cheapest one.
Timing should start when water resumes boiling again, not when you put pasta on water. Still, often you need to cook more than indicated.
If you cook it in high mountain it is likely to cook worse... Less atmosphear, less boiling temperature, not good.
As for spaghetti i broke them in half because it is easier to cook. Someone would say it's an abomination, but frankly i don't care and there's not this remarkable difference.
Again with cooking time and spaghetti kind:
I used Molisana squared spaghetti alla chitarra, they are excellent, maybe my favs of the ones you can find in supermarket. They are large and have huge tolerance at high cooking times. Other times i use thinner ones, spaghettini, they are fine as described in 5 minutes, they are al dente and good.
This ones are estimated in 13 minutes, i suppose al dente. In 13 minutes this stuff is not al dente, it's uncooked.
Here it is after 14-15 minutes:
They are not ready! Here after 20 minutes:
Definetely not overcooked, and if you strain water, put them on the dish then wait to eat for 10 minutes they still aren't overcooked.
Pay attention that with cheap pasta type it's easy to overcook (sometimes you feel them overcooked but stil not completely cooked, not a good thing) and it's a bad thing.
Join pasta with topping:
strain spaghetti, put them on the dish or topping on the pan along with pasta (of course without any water left!) and stir... Here the result:
About optional ingredients:
Last 3 ingredients are listed as optionals. Instead you can use only them with fresh pepper or pepper powder. But prepared peppers has a distinctive flavors that is great for this recipe and you can use only them with evo oil. It' best to use all listed ingredient tough.
Ingredients for 1 person:
- 140g spaghetti
- water
- cooking salt
- pepper (previously boiled on vinegar and stored away with oil, capers cured with salt, and anchovies)
- evo oil
- achovies (optional)
- capers cured with salt (optional)
- pepper and anchovies puree (optional)
It's very simple: you cut peppers, anchovies, put some capers, pepper anchovies puree, oil, stir with fork and then you let it be while you cook spaghetti.
About water-salt quantity:
in general we don't measure it we put it roughly. If you put too much salt you must put some other water or add salt if it's too less . Anyway a good measure is 1 L of water every 100g of pasta. I used 140g of spaghetti, 15g of cooking salt, around 1,5 L water and was fine. Take note that this is an higly salted recipe so you don't want to put too much salt, anyway it's a bad idea to cook pasta without salt. Consider too that my father who ate the dish likes very salted things, so it could be good for less salted toppings. Here good to have a bit of experience.
Cooking spaghetti:
I don't know how much in America you are used to cooking pasta nor which type you find... Let's say a thing: pasta producers are liars (just joking
)! They often declare a cooking time wich is clearly shorter than proper one. Maybe because often if you cook it too much it sucks,especially for cheapest one.
Timing should start when water resumes boiling again, not when you put pasta on water. Still, often you need to cook more than indicated.
If you cook it in high mountain it is likely to cook worse... Less atmosphear, less boiling temperature, not good.
As for spaghetti i broke them in half because it is easier to cook. Someone would say it's an abomination, but frankly i don't care and there's not this remarkable difference.
- You boil some water
- When it boils you put the salt
- then you put spaghetti and cook it for the right time
- it's better to start counting time when water resumes to boil. Obviously it's a bad thing if you put the pasta and the water resumes after minutes, so it's bettter to have a good fire. And don't trust time... Taste to know if it's cooked.
- IMPORTANT: stir often, spaghetti must not stick to each others! A large pan is good for this.
Again with cooking time and spaghetti kind:
I used Molisana squared spaghetti alla chitarra, they are excellent, maybe my favs of the ones you can find in supermarket. They are large and have huge tolerance at high cooking times. Other times i use thinner ones, spaghettini, they are fine as described in 5 minutes, they are al dente and good.
This ones are estimated in 13 minutes, i suppose al dente. In 13 minutes this stuff is not al dente, it's uncooked.
Here it is after 14-15 minutes:
They are not ready! Here after 20 minutes:
Definetely not overcooked, and if you strain water, put them on the dish then wait to eat for 10 minutes they still aren't overcooked.
Pay attention that with cheap pasta type it's easy to overcook (sometimes you feel them overcooked but stil not completely cooked, not a good thing) and it's a bad thing.
Join pasta with topping:
strain spaghetti, put them on the dish or topping on the pan along with pasta (of course without any water left!) and stir... Here the result:
About optional ingredients:
Last 3 ingredients are listed as optionals. Instead you can use only them with fresh pepper or pepper powder. But prepared peppers has a distinctive flavors that is great for this recipe and you can use only them with evo oil. It' best to use all listed ingredient tough.
