SPAGHETTI ALL’ASSASSINA
This one has been making the rounds on my socials and I knew it would a hit in this household, so I’ve been waiting until I had a random half-used can of tomato paste to use up. Today was that day! I also had some fresh passata from the last of my homegrown Cherokee Purple tomatoes that just finally ripened (yes, in NOVEMBER, WTF).
I could tell by looking at the recipe that some adjustments would be needed - first off, where’s the salt? I was also fairly sure the cooking times were a bit too short. And that more garlic would be a necessity, LOL. I consulted a few other recipes but decided to stick with the NYT version, more or less, and just adapt as necessary.
I made a half-ish recipe using 10 ounces of linguine in a 14" skillet. Toasted 2 t. of tomato paste, 6 cloves of chopped garlic and 1.5 t. of pepper flakes in a mixture of 2T. butter and 2T. olive oil. For the liquid portion of the recipe, I started with 2 cups of passata mixed with 1.5 cups of water, a teaspoon of salt and 3 T. tomato paste for the broth. This ended up not being enough - I probably added an additional cup or more of water to get the pasta to al dente. The cooking times were, as expected, too short - my pasta took around 5 minutes per addition of broth to absorb everything. Increasing the heat to medium high might have sped things up, but I waited until the pasta reached al dente to do so, cranking it only to get some additional browning at the end. I also added a little more oil at the end to encourage browning.
Served with a dollop of ricotta, some parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. This was delicious! Mr. Bionda went WILD for it, as I knew he would - he is a big fan of leftover pasta cooked until crispy, and that is essentially what this tastes like. If you don’t love leftover pasta, you may not care for this - the texture wasn’t quite the same as leftover, but it definitely had a pasty, starchy quality that reminded me of reheated. The crispy browned bits offset that texture really nicely, though. Would make again, with the tweaks I mentioned. I’d probably also cut back or eliminate the tomato paste in the broth - I think it made the sauce a bit too thick.
One other note - a 14 inch skillet is essential for this unless you want to break your pasta in half. I also think it would be difficult to cook the full pound of pasta called for in anything smaller, whether you break the pasta or not.
After first broth addition/reduction
After reaching al dente and cranking heat for browning
Ready to eat!
