Spaghetti all’assassina (‘killer spaghetti’)
- 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.
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Serves 2 -
Hands-on time 35 min
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.
Nutrition
- Calories
- 588kcals
- Fat
- 21g (3g saturated)
- Protein
- 15g
- Carbohydrates
- 79g (11g sugars)
- Fibre
- 6.9g
- Salt
- 0.2g