FROM CNN’S STANLEY TUCCI’S SEARCHING FOR ITALY SERIES

Servings: 4 Prep: 10 min Cook: 25 min Total: 35 min Difficulty: Simple. Just keep your eyes on the pan.
Crispy, spicy and deeply tomato-ey flavor from a whole new technique for cooking Spaghetti.

INGREDIENTS

• 320 g spaghetti (12oz) (Finer spaghetti is better.)
• 2 ½ cups of tomato sauce homemade or store-bought
• 2 – 2 ½ tbsp tomato paste/concentrate
• 3 ½ cups water
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil. (1/2 cup)
• 6 garlic cloves peeled and 4-5 chopped, 1 left whole but rasped minced
• 4 anchovy fillets
• 2 tsp red chili pepper flakes or according to taste
• 1-2 tsp sugar optional
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Grated Parmigiano for serving, mounded on each serving

DIRECTIONS

1. 
Prepare a broth made with water, 2½ cups purée, and plenty of tomato paste and salt, and bring to a boil. According to the academy, the sauce “must be bright red and tasty, but still a broth.”
2. 
In the pan, add ½ cup oil, the garlic, and chili pepper to taste. Cook the garlic over a high flame until golden. Then add the anchovy filets and cook until pureed. While cooking the anchovies pour in around ½ cup tomato purée. To temper the acidity from the tomatoes by add 1 tsp. sugar.
3. 
Spread the purée over the whole pan with a wooden spoon and let it reduce slightly. At this point put the uncooked spaghetti in the pan, distributing them in such a way that the pasta collects the sauce.
4. 
Stir the spaghetti as it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan a little, swapping the top layer of noodles for those already glossy from having been stuck to the bottom.
5. 
At this point add 2 medium-sized ladles of the tomato “broth.” The liquid will sizzle and start to simmer. Let it reduce without turning the spaghetti and “listen” for the boiling point. When you hear it “sizzle” again (the noise changes sharply), keep your distance and wait for the “burning” process to continue (this will take 30 seconds to 1 one minute).
6. 
Repeat, stirring to remove the burnt spaghetti from the bottom of the pan while adding more tomato liquid. Each addition must correspond to the time needed for it to sizzle and then repeat by soaking the pasta in the sauce. The stiff spaghetti will start to bend, and the whole process takes about 8-11 minutes adding water if the sauce dries out too much too early. – the assassina “must suffer.”
7. 
The result is hard spaghetti with a different consistency than boiled spaghetti, but only the burnt ones “crunch.” You need to taste it to decide the level of cooking and burning, and serve it when you think it’s ready – bring the pan directly to the table.

NOTES

I use a circular patty form to create the plate serving as shown in the photo of this recipe. It makes the presentation as desirable as the food itself.