Spaghetti all’assassina from Bari, Puglia, has become one of Italy’s top 10 most searched recipes. According to Italian national newspaper La Repubblica it’s the first time spaghetti assassina has been included.
Also known as spaghetti bruciati (burnt spaghetti), the dried spaghetti in this dish isn’t boiled, but is instead fried from raw in a frying pan with olive oil, tomato passata, garlic and plenty of chilli. Once crisp and smoky, the pasta is cooked ‘risottata’ (risotto-style), with tomato broth added ladle-by-ladle, until absorbed leaving the spaghetti crunchy around the edges, in a deep red, rich and charred tomato sauce.
Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor Stanley Tucci was blown away when he tried spaghetti all’assassina for the first time on a visit to Bari.
“Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Tucci said during an episode of “Searching for Italy.” “I love that. And I’ve been around, too.”
The Puglia Guys spaghetti assassina recipe
Spaghetti all’assassina is easy to cook at home. Unlike some other Italian dishes, assassina doesn’t depend on fresh seasonal ingredients. It can be made with a decent jar of passata and some good quality spaghetti. Assassina is all about the method.
Here is the Puglia Guys spaghetti assassina recipe listed with others we have collected for the Puglia Kitchen over the years.
While purists are dedicated to the traditional assassina recipe, we incorporate our own tweaks – which include using spicy Calabrian ‘nduja as our chilli base, and finishing with smoked burrata cheese.
Relatively unknown outside Bari until a few years ago, assassina has acquired something of a cult status. It’s recently been popularised in fiction and on TV. Visitors now come to Bari on a mission to seek out the best spaghetti all’assassina.
For years we’ve been dining out on spaghetti all’assassina on our travels around Puglia. We are spaghetti assassina ambassadors and members of the International Assassina Academy, an organisation founded to promote what must Puglia’s best known least known pasta dish.
For anyone wondering which recipe took the no. 1 spot, there’s no surprise. Carbonara!
