Sicilian spaghetti with chillies, sultanas and anchovies is a recipe I picked up on my own travels. Rather unusually for Italian cooking, it doesn't include tomatoes or onions. I think one of the reasons this dish made such an impression on me when I first encountered it—quite aside form its exquisite flavours—is that there is a real sense of the island's Arabic heritage in it.
Ci vediamo a Palermo
I've probably left this a bit late in the season—this is a fantastic summer dish. But, I do cook it all year round. It's an incredibly quick and easy dish.
One of the keys to this dish is to use the right kind of anchovies. Basically you want the kind preserved in oil and vinegar and not the tinned type preserved in oil.
I'm using Spanish piquillo peppers here, mainly because they need to be used. But you can use any grilled, peeled red bell peppers. Make your own using this method.
This dish uses more olive oil than many similar dishes, mainly because olive oil is a key part of the "sauce" in this case.
I'm cooking it here with a spaghetti with peperoncino—because I love a little spiciness. But, it works perfectly well with bog-standard spaghetti; what was used when I first learned it.
I usually serve it with a green salad of some form. Knock yourselves out: I'm not gonna publish yet another recipe that teaches you how to make a simple salad.
The portions here are for 2 to 3 diners. Use your calculators to scale up or down. NB: images here are for slightly smaller portions.
Shopping list
the Sicilian spaghetti with chillies, sultanas and anchovies
Enough spaghetti per diner (approx. 90g per diner, dried)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Approx. 80g preserved sustainable anchovies (see above) per diner
2 tbspns smoked garlic, cubed
3 tspns minced peperoncino chillies
4 tbspns seedless sultanas (or raisins)
2 tbspns of whole small capers
½ tspn turmeric
juice of ½ a fresh lemon
Salt and black pepper to taste
4 tbspns, cooked, peeled and preserved red peppers
Cooking method
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil in which you'll boil your pasta
Heat approx. 4 tbspns of the olive oil in a pan on a high heat. Add the smoked garlic while it's heating. Allow the garlic to sizzle for a few minutes before adding the minced peperoncino.
Season with salt, pepper and the lemon juice. Stir and sizzle for 3 to 4 mins. Add the capers and sultanas and sizzle for a further few mins
Sprinkle in the turmeric, slowly adding the remainder of the of the olive oil. Reduce the heat: you want the oil to be hot, but not smoking
When the pasta is cooked, while draining, remove the "sauce" from the heat and add the anchovies and stir in
Return the hot pasta to the pot. Pour in the contents of the pan. Add the red peppers and thoroughly stir before serving
Plate, take to table and serve with a simple green salad
Alternatives
This is a delicious dish without adding the fish. If making a vegetarian/vegan version, I love it with a lot of chopped flat leaf parsley thrown into the hot olive oil just before serving.
Conversely, for carnivores, it's great if you replace the anchovies with chopped prosciutto crudo.
Pairings
This is one of those dishes I adore with those sun-drenched Sicilian whites; such as Catarrattos. In truth, I've eaten this dish so many times, I can't even remember all those whites that have worked well with it. However, one does stand out: Pieno Sud Bianco 2022. Discuss amongst yourselves. Yes, I'm sure there are far more sophisticated plonks out there. But, this one works perfectly with this dish. A little viciousness is entirely fitting where Sicily is concerned...
Comments