Spaghetti with Colatura di Alici from Cetara – Italy (or Salted Anchovy Sauce) are a typical Campania DOP product that is obtained from a process of ripening anchovies immersed in water and salt. The peculiarity of the dish consists in the fact that all the ingredients (pasta excluded) must be inserted cold. This makes the recipe extremely fast and easy to make but the quality of the ingredients used will be of fundamental importance.
Ingredients for 4 people
400/500 gr of Spaghetti (or linguine or vermicelli)
2 cloves of Garlic
1 generous tuft of Parsley
4 tablespoons of Colatura di Alici
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (2 tablespoons each)
Fresh Red Chilli Peppers to taste (optional)
For the preparation of spaghetti with colatura di alici we will use a long format of bronze drawn Gragnano pasta which we will immediately put to boil. As for the salt, he reminded you that anchovy sauce is very salty so the pasta should be cooked with very little or even without salt.
In the meantime that the water is boiling, we will cut the garlic cloves lengthwise and finely chop the parsley. In a baking dish, in a nice round of excellent extra virgin olive oil, we will put the garlic and part of the previously chopped parsley. At this point we will pour the teaspoons of colatura di alici, a ladleful of pasta cooking water, optionally a little red chilly pepper and emulsify everything.
At the end of cooking, drain the spaghetti with colatura di alici directly on the pan, mixing everything well.
We serve on plates and sprinkle with the other part of parsley.
Variants and Curiosities
- A slightly different but equally tasty version provides for the sprinkling of a little bottarga on top of every single dish.
