Spaghetti alla Siracusana

Charred and peeled peppers as the body of the sauce, not tomato.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 400 g spaghetti
• 3 yellow peppers
• 1 aubergine, in 2 cm dice
• 4 salted anchovy fillets
• 80 g green olives, stoned
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 200 g tomatoes, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• basil
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

Method

1. CHAR THE PEPPERS WHOLE over a flame or under a grill until the skin is black all over, then sweat them in a covered bowl for 15 minutes and rub the skins off. Tear them into strips.
2. That charring is the dish. It is what separates this from a puttanesca, which shares the anchovy, olive and caper and has no pepper in it at all — raw peppers simply stewed give you a different and much thinner sauce.
3. Fry the diced aubergine in half the oil until collapsing, and set it aside.
4. Warm the rest of the oil with the garlic, melt the anchovies into it, then add the tomatoes and cook 10 minutes.
5. Return the peppers and aubergine with the olives and capers and cook 10 minutes more, crushing some of the pepper against the pan so it thickens the sauce.
6. Cook the pasta and finish it in the pan with its water.
7. Tear basil in off the heat. No cheese.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes