Thick spaghetti with spring onion and chili

Name: Thick spaghetti with spring onion and chili
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Spaghettoni 11.5 oz; Fresh scallion from Tropea (without the stems) 2.25 lbs; Piccadilly tomatoes 5.3 oz; Garlic 2 ½ tbsp; Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese 1.5 oz; Vegetable broth 4 ¼ cups; Green Peperoncino to taste; Bay leaves 3 leaves; Parsley to taste; Basil to taste; Extra virgin olive oil to taste; Fine salt to taste

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Serving: 4
Cost: Low

PRESENTATION

Recipe by
Alessandro Negrini

Thick Spaghetti with Scallion and Chili has been on the menu at Milan's Michelin-starred Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia since 1965. That year, founder Aimo Moroni swapped the garlic in a classic aglio, olio e peperoncino for fresh Tropea cipollotto — the slender, sweet spring onion from Calabria — and landed on something quieter and more fragrant than the original.

Chef Alessandro Negrini, who keeps the dish on the menu today, calls this spaghetti with scallions and chili pepper exactly what it is: easy to prepare, hard to improve. The sauce — cipollotto, peperoncino, basil, cherry tomatoes — cooks down into something creamy and fragrant, the kind of result that feels more considered than the effort suggests.

How to prepare Thick spaghetti with spring onion and chili

To prepare the thick spaghetti with spring onion and chili, first make the vegetable broth and keep it warm. Clean the spring onions: remove the green part 1, peel off the outermost layer 2 and thinly slice them julienne-style 3.

Remove the inner germ from the garlic 4 and mince it very finely 5. Put the garlic in a large saucepan with a generous drizzle of oil 6 and sauté for a couple of minutes.

Add the spring onion 7 and moisten with a ladleful of hot broth 8, then season with salt 9.

Aromatize with bay leaves 10 and cook over medium heat for about 50 minutes, adding more broth as needed 11. Meanwhile, prepare the cherry tomatoes: blanch them for 2-3 minutes and cool them in an ice bath, then remove the skin 12 and the seeds.

Cut the flesh into very small dice 13 and transfer it to a bowl. Dress with a drizzle of oil 14, toss 15 and set aside.

Towards the end of the spring onion's cooking time, break the spaghettoni in half 16 and cook them in boiling salted water for the time indicated on the package 17. At this point the spring onions will have become almost creamy, so lower the heat and add the chili for seasoning 18.

Add the cherry tomatoes as well 19 and the chopped parsley 20. Drain the spaghettoni al dente and transfer them to the saucepan 21.

Add a ladleful of cooking water 22, a drizzle of oil 23 and grated Parmigiano Reggiano 34. Stir to thoroughly combine the pasta with the sauce.

Plate 25 and garnish with fresh basil leaves 26. Finally, finish with a final drizzle of oil. Your thick spaghetti with spring onion and chili are ready to be served 27!