Pasta with anchovy sauce is a quick and easy first course. With its beautiful amber color and salty, slightly smoky flavor, anchovy sauce is a highly prized ingredient and should therefore be enhanced by pairing it with flavors that aren't overpowering: a simple pasta with garlic, oil, and chili pepper is one of the most suitable choices.
The secrets to excellent pasta with anchovy sauce are few: a good sauté of garlic and chili pepper (fresh, of course, as it's more fragrant), drained pasta al dente so it finishes cooking in the pan, and a bit of the pasta cooking water to stir it in, which will help form an almost creamy sauce. The anchovy sauce shouldn't cook, so it's best to add it after plating the pasta. Another very important tip for preparing pasta with anchovy sauce is not to salt the pasta cooking water, or to use very little salt, since the anchovy sauce is already quite salty. A generous handful of chopped fresh parsley and the pasta with anchovy sauce is ready.
INGREDIENTS :
360 g Spaghetti
6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1 Chili pepper (hot)
4 tablespoons of anchovy sauce
Parsley to taste
PROCEDURE
First, boil the pasta in plenty of unsalted water. Peel the garlic and chop the chili pepper. Sauté them for about a minute in a large pan with the oil, tilting the pan so they brown nicely.
Drain the pasta when still very al dente, reserving a little of the cooking water, and transfer it to the pan. The pasta should finish cooking in the pan over high heat, adding a little of the cooking water to keep it moist.
Once the pasta is cooked and the sauce has mixed well with the spaghetti, turn off the heat and add the chopped parsley.
Pour everything into a bowl and add a spoonful of anchovy sauce per person.
At this point you can plate and serve the pasta with anchovy sauce immediately.