Taste invaders: pasta with semi-dried tomatoes, anchovies and chillies.

I posted something like this years ago; way back in the early years of this weblog, pre-pandemic, before children, ante-GFC. A long time ago. I could use the search button, but where’s the romance?

There are more complicated and crowded recipes along these lines about the web; but some contain too many ingredients. To illustrate the point, one of the most rustic pasta dishes adds only garlic, oil, parsley and a dusting of grated cheese; but when you’re hungry, there is nothing better.

And note: only one ingredient actually gets cooked in this recipe. Standard spaghetti works well, or you could use angel hair, or any other long pasta. Without wanting to be coarse, the slurpiness of long pasta assists in the uptake of the flavour when the sauce is minimal. I don't know why; ask a food technician or a chef. I’m neither.

Chop a small handful of semi-dried tomatoes into slivers; likewise with half the volume of anchovies, and half again of birdseye chillies. The idea is to fascinate the tastebuds with tiny bombshells of intense salty anchovy flavour alternating with the acid sweetness of the tomato and the heat of the chilli fragments, all backed by the warm homeliness of the slurpy pasta. The ratios are my preferences; they may be varied.

Meanwhile cook pasta to the point of al dente, or beyond if you dare. Drain and coat pasta with a good dash of olive oil and the chopped ingredients, and serve immediately, tossing chopped parsley stalks over the dish. The crunchy texture adds another dimension; the outer limits of culinary satisfaction. Or was it the twilight zone? Or the invaders?