Stroncatura

A dark rough Calabrian pasta with anchovy, garlic and toasted crumbs.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 400 g stroncatura, or wholewheat linguine
• 8 salted anchovies, rinsed and boned
• 120 g coarse breadcrumbs
• 5 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 dried chillies
• 8 tablespoons olive oil
• parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Stroncatura is a dark, rough, almost grey pasta. If you cannot get it, a wholewheat linguine is the nearest thing — the point is a surface coarse enough to hold crumbs.
2. SALT THE WATER LESS THAN USUAL. Between the anchovies and the pasta itself this dish arrives salty, and the water is the one place you can take some out.
3. Toast the crumbs in two spoons of the oil until deep gold and tip them out of the pan at once.
4. Warm the rest of the oil with the garlic and crumbled chillies over a low heat, then melt the anchovies in, pressing them until they disappear.
5. Cook the pasta, pull it early, and finish it in the anchovy oil with a ladle of its water.
6. ADD HALF THE CRUMBS IN THE PAN AND HALF AT THE TABLE. The ones in the pan thicken the sauce and the ones on top stay crisp, and using them all one way loses one of the two textures.
7. Parsley, and 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