Spaghetti in Spicy Tomato Sauce (Lombrichelli all’Etrusca)

- Total Time
- 2½ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 4tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2carrots, finely chopped
- 1stalk celery, finely chopped
- 1medium-large onion, finely chopped
- 1fresh red chili, seeded and minced (about 1 tablespoon)
- 128-ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes
- Salt
- 117 6/10ounce (500 gram) package imported dried spaghetti alla chitarra or one pound regular dried spaghetti or penne
- ½pound pecorino Romano or cacio de Roma, grated
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oil in a large sauté pan. Add carrots, celery and onion and cook on medium until soft. Stir in chili and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are lightly browned, about 20 minutes total.
- Step 2
Place tomatoes in a bowl, crush fine with your hands and add to pan. Stir. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to very low and cook, stirring from time to time, 1½ hours, until reduced and concentrated. Do not allow sauce to scorch. Season to taste with salt. Set aside.
- Step 3
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil for pasta. Cook pasta until al dente. Add ½ cup pasta water to tomato mixture. Drain pasta. Reheat sauce to a simmer, add pasta and toss a few minutes until pasta is well coated with sauce. Serve, with generous drifts of cheese on top.
Private Notes
Comments
Make sure to do a very small dice on the carrots, celery, and onions, so that they break down properly and basically melt into the sauce. I used 2 fresh red chilis as well as 2 thai bird chilis and a pinch of red pepper flakes and it had a nice amount of heat. Really let it cook down and become thick, concentrated, and brick-colored, the idea is to thin it out with the addition of some of the salty, starchy pasta water to make it into a silky sauce that coats the pasta. This turned out delicious
My beloved Italian cooking bestie always grated the carrot into the tomatoes and it truly “melted” in upon a decent amount of gentle simmering time. Here’s an ode to you, Roc.
No garlic?
Small diced the carrots, onions and celery like one of the readers suggested and it still felt like the sauce was too chunky (for my preference). Felt like a lot of work for not that great a sauce.
This is probably my favorite pasta sauce - my family loved it! My red chili wasn't spicy, so I added red chili flakes. I also added a small a minced clove of garlic and a can of tomato sauce, because they like it tomato-y. I really reduced the sauce, then added back pasta water as needed. I stirred half the grated Romano cheese (mine was quite moist) into the pasta, and put the rest on top (yes, we used 1/2 lb of Romano cheese!)
I assume it’s meant to read: 1 package of pasta alla chitarra @ 17 6/10 oz (500 g) and one half CUP of grated pecorino or cacio. A half pound of grated cheese seems overly imperial, even by Roman standards.
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