Spiced tomato, panko breadcrumbs
When I was growing up, a bunch of us would meet regularly after school at a local pasta bar.
The thought now disturbs me – cooked pasta sitting in sauce all day, ready to be reheated in
microwaves – but back then it was THE spot to get an early dinner. The most popular pasta by
far was penne with a butter chicken sauce. While I never ordered it, my sister and most of my
friends were addicted. It wasn’t until I was reading a book about pasta by Anna Del Conte –
the cook who changed the way the English thought about Italian cooking – that I remembered
this dish. Anna had a recipe for ‘tortiglioni con pollo al curry’, which seemed eerily similar to
the dish my sister loved. She talked about Venice being one of the gateways to the spice trade
and how those avours started to seep into some dishes. Shortly after reading Anna’s book,
Alberto’s Lounge, a playful Italian restaurant, opened in Sydney serving ‘trippa alla romana’,
which featured these spices. It was described as ‘heading in the direction of butter chicken’,
and again I was transported back to school days and our local pasta bar.
I decided to give this subcontinental avour direction a go in the form of a subtly spiced
pink pasta sauce. And it was delicious. Unconventional, but delicious. The lesson here is don’t
knock it until you’ve tried it.
Serves 4
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
to release its avour
½ teaspoon garam masala
2 cardamom pods, crushed
1 tablespoon salted butter
80 ml (±⁄³ cup) extra-virgin
olive oil
2 garlic cloves, nely chopped
3 tablespoons dry white wine
400 g canned whole peeled
tomatoes
125 ml (½ cup) pouring cream
½ teaspoon caster sugar
sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper
60 g (1 cup) panko breadcrumbs
FRESH PASTA FOR 4
maccheroni a descita, pici
DRIED PASTA FOR 4
gnocchetti sardi, bucatini
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Heat a deep frying pan over medium heat. Throw in the
cinnamon, garam masala and cardamom pods and toast for
2minutes or until fragrant. Add the butter, 1 tablespoon of
the olive oil and the garlic, then give everything a good stir
for about 30 seconds or until the garlic is soft – you don’t
want it to burn.
Pour in the white wine and watch it bubble and drink up the
avours for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cream, sprinkle
over the sugar and season with salt and pepper. Give everything
a big stir, then reduce the heat to low and leave to bubble away
for 30 minutes, allowing the spices to imbue their avours and
the sauce to thicken.
Bring a large saucepan of water to a lively boil and season as
salty as the sea. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain
the pasta, reserving 125 ml (½ cup) of the cooking water.
Heat a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the remaining
3tablespoons of olive oil and the panko breadcrumbs and cook
until golden (don’t walk away from the pan as the breadcrumbs
only take a few seconds to colour).
When everything is ready, sh out the cinnamon stick and
cardamon pods (if you can) and throw in the drained pasta.
Give everything a vigorous stir to bring it all together, adding
some of your pasta cooking water if needed.
Divide among bowls, shower generously in the breadcrumbs
and serve.