Cavatelli pasta with peperoni cruschi (Senise peppers)

Cavatelli pasta with Senise peppers (peperoni cruschi)

Jacqueline De Bono

The addition of the peperoni cruschi really gives this classic Southern Italian pasta dish a wonderful smoky flavour 

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Basilicata, Italian, Southern Italian

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 400 g cavatelli pasta
• 80 g breadcrumbs
• 2 garlic cloves peeled and crushed
• 6 dried Senise peppers peperoni cruschi
• 1 anchovy fillet
• salt for pasta and to taste

Instructions

 

• Put a pot of water onto boil for the pasta. Add salt once it starts to boil and bring to the boil again.
• Take the dried peppers and remove the stem and the central part with the seeds, you should end up with just the red part of the pepper which you can cut open and flatten slightly.
• Heat some olive oil a large frying pan. Let it get to a good hot temperature and then put peppers in. Let them brown slightly all over by turning them from one side to another. This has to be quite fast as they burn easily and taste bitter if burnt. Remove the peppers and let them dry on a sheet of absorbent kitchen paper. 
• In the same oil, add the crushed garlic cloves, the anchovy fillet and the chopped fresh chili pepper (if you have it, otherwise it’s okay to use dry). Let the garlic brown slightly and help the anchovy fillet dissolve in the oil by crushing it with a fork. Then add the breadcrumbs mix everything together. When the breadcrumbs start to taste, turn off the heat.
• Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the packet. Once cooked, drain it and add it to the breadcrumbs (after removing the garlic cloves) Crumble most of the pepper pieces over the pasta and mix everything together well and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add a little oil if it seems to dry.
• Serve sprinkled with a few pepper pieces and serve immediately. (you can serve this dish with extra peperoncino flakes and grated pecorino if you want)

Notes

If you don’t find cavatelli pasta this dish works really well with orecchiette or malloreddus (Sardinian gnocchi), or make this recipe with homemade cavatelli.

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