Pasta with anchovy sauce is a quick and very easy first course, perhaps the best way – definitely the simplest – to enjoy the anchovy sauce from Cetara, an excellent product of the Amalfi Coast. With its beautiful amber color and slightly smoked salty flavor, anchovy sauce is a very precious ingredient and should therefore be paired with flavors that are not too overwhelming: a simple garlic, oil, and chili pepper pasta is one of the best choices.
The secrets for a great pasta with anchovy sauce are few: a nice sauté of garlic and chili pepper (preferably fresh, if you have it, as it is more fragrant), pasta drained very al dente, so that it finishes cooking in the pan, and a little of its cooking water to blend it, which will help form an almost creamy sauce. The anchovy sauce should not be cooked, so the best thing is to add it after plating the pasta. Another very important trick for preparing pasta with anchovy sauce is not to salt the pasta cooking water or salt it very little, as anchovy sauce is already salty enough. A nice handful of freshly chopped parsley and the pasta with anchovy sauce is ready!
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- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 2 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Region: Campania
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 286.69 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 27.69 (g) of which sugars 0.52 (g)
- Proteins 5.76 (g)
- Fat 17.46 (g) of which saturated 2.49 (g)of which unsaturated 0.41 (g)
- Fibers 1.65 (g)
- Sodium 209.04 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 237 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Spaghetti with Anchovy Sauce from Cetara
- 12.7 oz spaghetti (or linguine (for me gluten-free))
- 6 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 chili pepper (spicy)
- 4 tbsps anchovy sauce (from Cetara)
- 1 bunch parsley
Tools
- 1 Pot
- 1 Pan non-stick pasta pan
- 1 Knife
- 1 Strainer / Colander
- 1 Spoon
How to Prepare Pasta with Anchovy Sauce from Cetara
To prepare pasta with anchovy sauce from Cetara, start by boiling the pasta in plenty of unsalted water (or very lightly salted); in the meantime, peel the garlic and chop the chili pepper. Put them in a large pan with the oil (1). Sauté them for about a minute, tilting the pan to brown them well (2). Drain the pasta very al dente, keeping some of its cooking water aside, and transfer it to the pan (3).
Finish cooking the spaghetti in the pan over high heat, adding a little cooking water to keep it very moist (4). When the pasta is cooked and the sauce is well blended with the spaghetti, turn off the heat and add the chopped parsley (5). Transfer the pasta with the anchovy sauce to a bowl or individual plates and add a spoonful of anchovy sauce per person (6).
Serve the pasta with anchovy sauce from Cetara immediately.
Notes
Tips and Variations
The spaghetti with anchovy sauce prepared with this simple recipe will let you enjoy the pure flavor of this extraordinary product without covering it with other flavors. If you want to enrich it, you can add some bread crumbs lightly toasted in oil, to give the dish some crunchiness, or small strands of burrata added at the end of cooking, to give the pasta a bit of freshness.
What is anchovy sauce?
The anchovy sauce from Cetara, a slow food presidium, is a very ancient product: it was prepared as it is today already in the 13th century, but a similar product seems to have been used as early as ancient Rome. As mentioned, it is a very precious and quite expensive ingredient, precisely because its preparation is long and laborious: the anchovies, deprived of their heads, are arranged in layers with coarse salt in large barrels and with a weight to press them, for a period that can go from May to October. The maceration liquid of the anchovies is the famous sauce.
If you are not in the production area, you can buy it online, for example on Amazon. I use the one from Delfino, great for any preparation. It keeps for a long time at room temperature and just a few drops are enough to flavor your dishes.
