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Spaghetti all’assassina (‘killer spaghetti’)

Name: Spaghetti all’assassina (‘killer spaghetti’)
Prep time: 35 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: Serves 2
Cuisine: Italian recipes
Ingredients: 100g tomato purée; ½ bunch basil; 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 3 garlic cloves; 1 fresh or dried red chilli, split open; 100ml passata; 200g dried spaghetti

By: Roberta d’Elia

Published: 27 Aug 24
Updated: 5 Sep 24

Have you ever heard of spaghetti all’assassina – ‘killer spaghetti’? Forget everything you know about cooking pasta! This recipe, shared by chef Roberta d’Elia and invented in Puglia’s capital Bari in the 1960s, treats it in a very different way. Uncooked dry spaghetti is added to a pan with a little tomato sauce and fed splashes of broth – a bit like a risotto – as it fries, crisps up and chars in the sauce. These crispy, smoky bits elevate the flavour into something more exciting and complex than the ingredients might suggest.

Born and raised in Foggia, Puglia, Roberta is the head chef at pasta delivery company Pasta Evangelists. She’s on a mission to bring the joys of hand-crafted pasta to the UK. She made her first pasta shape, orecchiette (a Puglian classic), aged six, learning how to cut, roll and twist by hand, using traditional tools with her nonna.

“Puglia holds a special place in my heart, especially when it comes to food,” says Roberta. “The food in Puglia is a celebration of simplicity and freshness, with every dish telling a story of local ingredients from the land or the sea.”
Read our full guide to the magical food of Puglia.

Easy
September 2024

Test kitchen approved

Serves 2
Hands-on time 35 min

Nutrition: Per serving

Calories: 588kcals
Fat: 21g (3g saturated)
Protein: 15g
Carbohydrates: 79g (11g sugars)
Fibre: 6.9g
Salt: 0.2g

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Before you start

The key to a good assassina is to make sure the spaghetti gets really crisp where it touches the pan – so don’t be afraid of a little charring and blackening here and there. It really makes all the difference to the final flavour.

Before you start

Ingredients

100g tomato purée
½ bunch basil
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1 fresh or dried red chilli, split open
100ml passata
200g dried spaghetti

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Method

Measure out 600ml water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Once boiled, stir in the tomato purée, basil and a pinch of salt. Keep at a gentle simmer.
Put a large, wide frying pan over a medium heat (it needs to be wide enough for the spaghetti to lie flat in the bottom). Add the oil, garlic and chilli – as soon as the garlic starts to sizzle, add the passata and a pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer.
Lay the spaghetti across the base of the pan and leave it undisturbed to fry in the oily sauce (about 5 minutes). Once the base of the pasta is crisp and browned, use a spatula to flip all the strands over and crisp the other side. This is a crucial part of assassina, so don’t flip until it’s crisp!

Once the spaghetti is browned and crisp on both sides, the sauce in the base of the pan will have started to catch and brown. Add 2 ladles of the gently simmering tomato broth to the pan and leave to vigorously simmer, undisturbed, until almost all the liquid is absorbed.
Continue this process until the pasta is nearly al dente (about 8 minutes). Trickle a little broth around the edges of the pan just to keep the sauce from drying out completely; this will allow a second crust to form. Give the pasta a final flip, crisp it on the other side while drizzling in the broth, then divide between bowls.