Spaghetti all’Assassina: Ostuni
Unusually for an Italian pasta dish, spaghetti all’assassina doesn’t rely on fresh, locally sourced ingredients for an authentic flavour. Ingredients still matter; the sweetness of the tomatoes should come through the smoky flavour. It’s the cooking technique that a great spaghetti all’assassina turns on.
Also known as spaghetti bruciati – burnt spaghetti – care is needed not to burn the assassina to the point of bitterness. Good to great assassina will combine warm smokiness with a barbecue-like char.
All About Balance | Getting the Texture Just Right
Achieving the right texture is equally important. The spaghetti should be crisp (croccanti), with bite. This can be tricky. Cooking assassina involves frying raw spaghetti before cooking it risotto-style in a rich tomato broth. For novices, the temptation to add too much broth can lead to overcooked pasta.
Assassina is a spaghetti dish without a sauce (sugò). But it shouldn’t be dry. A light drizzle of high-quality olive oil towards the end of cooking (as well as for the initial frying and blistering of the raw spaghetti) avoids clumping and ties the dish together. But don’t overdo it. No-one wants their assassina swimming in a pool of oil. Add just enough to leave a trace of oil on the plate where the spaghetti touches it.
2025: Puglia’s Assassina Summer
Spaghetti all’assassina is having its moment in Puglia. Once a dish you’d only find in Bari Vecchia, it’s now popping up on menus all over the region. More than ever before, local restaurants are jumping on the popularity of spaghetti all’assassina to attract tourists.
Tito Schipa, Ostuni | Killer Spaghetti or Spaghetti Killer?
Tito Schipa in Ostuni might not be an obvious destination for spaghetti all’assassina.
The restaurant (named after the Lecce born Italian tenor who enjoyed popularity at New York’s Met but fell out of favour for being a “pet” of the Mussolini fascist regime) is best known for its “Apulian Sushi Fusion“. Asian fusion food is not normally the cuisine tourists ask us to recommend when they vacation in Puglia.
As to personal taste, “fusion” always rings alarm bells. It has to be done especially well. Wasabi mayonnaise simply doesn’t cut it.
The Verdict
We’re happy to report that Tito Schipa’s spaghetti assassina ticked most of our boxes.
The spaghetti was crisp without being dry. It had a smoky depth without bitterness. While it lacked the fiery kick associated with the dish, that’s not uncommon. One naming origin story (that a diner accused the chef of trying to kill him with its spiciness) may be exaggerated. Local chilli tolerance tends to fall short of the expectations of chilli enthusiasts accustomed to the spicy heat of other cuisines.
What Tito Schipa’s assassina did lack was a sufficiently robust tomato flavour to punch through the smokiness. The brodo may have been too diluted. A small adjustment, such as adding some tomato concentrate to the raw spaghetti at the start of cooking, would easily elevate the dish’s flavour profile from a very decent plate of spaghetti assassina into one not to be missed.
The Puglia Guys guide on where to eat in Ostuni (and Ostuni’s best value Aperol Spritz).
