Today, a recipe for a quick first course: pasta with garlic, oil, and peperone crusco.
It is true that sometimes the simplest things are the best. This first course saves my last-minute lunches many times because it requires only the pasta cooking time. Garlic and oil is a dish from the poor cuisine, always prepared when there is freshly pressed new oil, but it is also the classic dish prepared during midnight spaghetti feasts at a friend’s house. Usually, hot chili is added, but this time I prepared it with fantastic peperone crusco.
Peperone crusco is a typical product of the Basilicata region. It involves processing a pepper with an intense red color and sweet flavor, thin pulp, and low water content, known as Senise pepper, which is particularly suitable for drying due to these characteristics. Once harvested, the peppers are hand-threaded one by one by the stalk with needle and thread into ‘serte’, like necklaces, and hung for drying. In the kitchen, they can be found not only in their natural state but increasingly appreciated in the form of Peperoni Cruschi (i.e., fried for a few seconds in EVO oil, cooled for a few minutes, salted, and ready to be enjoyed). They are called cruschi because they are crunchy.
You could serve this first course followed by a succulent meat dish like beer-braised pork loin, and to conclude… a little sweet treat is always welcome, even some simple cookies to have with coffee.
Let’s see together, step by step, how to make this recipe.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for Pasta with Garlic, Oil, and Peperone Crusco
- 14 oz pasta (long (I use linguine))
- 2 cloves garlic
- 5 peperoni cruschi
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- to taste salt
Tools
- 1 Scale
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 Pot
- 1 Lid
Let’s Start!
First of all, we need to boil the water for cooking the pasta, meanwhile, peel the garlic cloves and prepare the peppers. Use 5 peperoni cruschi, break three of them in half and crumble the other two with hands or a knife. In a high-sided non-stick pan, pour in the olive oil and add the garlic cloves.
Salt the water and add the pasta. Begin to heat the oil with the garlic, let them fry for a minute, then add the peperoni cruschi, leave for three or four seconds. Add a ladle of cooking water, using a lid to quickly cover the pan, let it cook for 20 seconds and turn off the heat.
When there are 4 or 5 minutes left for the pasta to cook, drain it into the pan, turn the heat back on, and add a couple of ladles of cooking water, mix well and, if necessary, add liquid until cooking is complete.
Una Riccia advises
Keep the peppers frying for a very short time; otherwise, they will taste burnt as they are already fried. Moreover, I recommend using long pasta made with bronze dies, which holds the sauce well.
