My first Vegan recipe is this tasty first course requiring two particular but not difficult cooking techniques: the matecatura and baked gratin.
ingredients for 4 people
- cooking time 30-40 minutes, medium difficulty
- 320g spaghetti o spaghettoni
- 2 tablespoons of desalted capers
- 4 tablespoons of olives (green or black from Gaeta) cut in half
- 2 garlic cloves, skinned and cut in half
- 1 fresh chilli pepper
- 100ml extra virgin olive oil (EVO oil)
- 4 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
In a 25 cm pan, low fire, put EVO oil, chilli pepper, two cloves of garlic skinned and cut in half, add the desalted capers and the olives; mix often. Remove the garlic as soon as it colors up.
bring the water, 30% less than required for pasta, to a boil with half the dose of salt and preheat the oven to 180°C with a baking pan or non-stick pan inside.
Take spaghetti out of water halfway through cooking: after 6 or 8 minutes (spaghetti usually cook in 12 minutes, spaghettoni in 16′) and stir in the pan by adding two ladles of cooking water. Add a ladle as soon as it starts sizzling again. The matecatura lasts 10 minutes for spaghetti and 16 minutes for spaghettoni. The stirring ends with the usual creamy sauce visible at the bottom of the pan.
Quickly remove from the heat and pour into a baking dish or saucepan, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, mix roughly and bake for 10 minutes at 180°C.
The finish of the spaghetti will be slightly crunchy on part of the surface while soft inside, the capers will have dissolved and the breadcrumbs will be crunchy and will have absorbed the aroms of the mantecatura cream.
Serve in a nest with olives and residual cream on top. Greek garlic and chilli to garnish.
Montagne Aspre e Gelide 