Chef Mike Easton’s Recipe for Salsa Siciliana
Featuring anchovies, from the kitchen of Il Corvo chef Mike Easton
By Mike Easton January 16, 2014
This article originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of Seattle magazine.
!–paging_filter–pstrongIngredients:/strongembr2 Tablespoons olive oil/emembr4 cloves of garlic, crushed/emembr8 fillets of anchovy/emembr2 Tablespoons of pomodoro concentrato, the Italian tomato paste in tubes/emembr1 teaspoon chili flakes, or more, to taste/emembr1 pound pasta/em/p
p class=”Normal1″strongInstructions:/strong/p
pCook 1 pound of your favorite spaghetti for the recommended amount of time in a large pot of well-salted water./p
pWhile that’s cooking, coat the bottom of a cold sauté pan with some olive oil, add the crushed garlic and place over low heat. Once the garlic begins to sizzle, begin smashing the anchovies into the pan with a fork. Let the anchovies fry for a minute and then add the chili flakes, toasting them in the oil with the anchovy and garlic for 15–20 seconds./p
pAdd the tomato paste to the pan and stir in with a wooden spoon. The sauce will look a bit lumpy and oily at this stage. “It’s OK, don’t panic,” Mike Easton says. Continue cooking the tomato in the sauce for another 2 minutes and turn off the flame.nbsp;/p
pAs your pasta comes to the perfect “al dente” doneness, drain the pasta, being sure to reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Toss the pasta with the sauce and the 1/4 cup of pasta water, stir until evenly coated./p
pServes 4./p
pEaston suggests serving this dish with “copious amounts of Nero d’Avola wine.”/p