Home Cooking: Spaghetti di Gragnano, Puttanesca Sauce

Home Cooking is a monthly series where we share creative and tasty recipes for you to try at home!

Easy to prepare, this pasta recipe will revamp your lackluster, store-bought spaghetti. Instead of mimicking the original dish from southern Italy, Chef Andrea of Limoni at The Ritz-Carlton, Guangzhou adopts a snappier, spicier approach with a base of red tuna tartar. You’ll fall in love with the simmered medley of chopped chili peppers, black olives, Pantelleria capers and diced cherry tomatoes over fine Italian spaghetti.

Ingredients (serves two):

140 g Spaghetti di Gragnano

1 clove garlic

40 g black olives

40 g Pantelleria capers

40 g anchovies

80 g cherry tomatoes

20 g parsley

100 g red tuna

1 lemon 

Thyme

Salt

Chili pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

1. Saute the garlic in extra virgin olive oil until brown.

2. Add the capers, black olives, anchovies and cherry tomatoes. 3. Season with salt, pepper and chili; add a ladle of water to let the sauce cook.

4. In a pot of salted boiling water, blanch the pasta for two or three minutes.

5. Drain the pasta and add it into the sauce, cooking little by little with the pasta water, like a risotto. (Cooking the pasta this way may take longer than usual, but the starch released by the noodle will create a creamier sauce.)

6. While the pasta is cooking, cut the tuna in concasse and season with salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and lemon zest. (Remember to season first with the extra virgin olive oil, which will protect the flesh of the fish and slow the osmosis action of the salt.)

7. When the pasta is ‘al dente,’ drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, chopped parsley and saute. 

8. Position the tartar in the center of a plate and lay the spaghetti on top of the tuna. Garnish the dish with fresh parsley leaves and extra virgin olive oil.

This recipe is courtesy of Chef Andrea of Limoni at The Ritz-Carlton, Guangzhou.

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