Reinvent Your Favorite Pasta With A Hot Pan Technique

If you're looking for ways to liven up plain spaghetti, look no further than spaghetti all'assassina, a dish that has taken the internet by storm. This charred pasta has been around since the early 1960s, thanks to a restaurant called Al Sorso Preferito in Puglia, Italy. Its invention actually happened accidentally when one of the cooks burnt the bottom of a spicy spaghetti dish. Instead of throwing it out, the rest of the chefs tried it and really loved the crunchy parts. Soon they began serving it to guests, and found customers requesting more spice and, surprisingly, more char.

Also known as burnt spaghetti, spaghetti all'assassina indeed burns the noodles and sauce in a hot pan until the pieces of the pasta are nice and crispy. But don't worry, you aren't blackening it completely — the point is to get a beautiful char throughout the dish to deepen the flavor in a unique way. The sauce also reduces over the intense heat and concentrates in flavor, while becoming thicker and clinging to the noodles. Today, there are tons of variations and recipes all over the internet, whether it's TikTok, Instagram, or food blogs. While this dish is traditionally made with spaghetti, you can choose other great pasta shapes for your particular sauce and make this with any style of noodle, if you really want to.

When making spaghetti all'assassina, there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind. For instance, it's a good idea to use a wide pan so that you can fit the long, raw spaghetti strands neatly (yup, no pre-boiling the pasta beforehand). While some recipes suggest breaking them to make them fit, a 12-inch skillet or shallow pan should accommodate most boodles, or buy "half-length" spaghetti that's shorter than average if you only have smaller pans.

In most recipes, you add the raw spaghetti to the pot along with a rich mixture of tomato paste and broth. Red pepper flakes and garlic are classic additions. Once you add the liquid, make sure not to move or stir the spaghetti. This is a crucial step, as keeping the spaghetti in one place will help it develop the signature char you're looking for, while the tomato broth bubbles and begins to burn around it.

Once the dish starts to char, you can then unstick the noodles just a bit, before adding more broth and allowing it to cook undisturbed for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until the pasta has a nice char and the sauce is reduced and sticky. You can serve spaghetti all'assassina alongside classic chicken cutlets, a juicy chicken breast, some spicy meatballs, or whatever else you love to serve with regular spaghetti. Your dinner is sure to be way more exciting than a ho-hum plate of boiled noodles and plain old marinara.