I often say that the simplest things are also the tastiest, and anyone who loves to cook knows perfectly well how true that is.
Calabrian-style pasta ca muddica falls perfectly into this category, as a traditional dish that is very tasty but made with just a few simple ingredients.
The origins of pasta ca muddica
There was a time when the poorer social classes did not have a great variety of dishes to consume, so they were constantly reinventing them in order to make taste and goodness coexist with the scarcity of economic resources.
Not being able to rely on quality raw materials such as meat and fish, they gave birth to the so-called salvage cuisine, represented in this recipe by the use of stale bread, now too hard to be eaten.
The time when this dish was most frequently cooked was Christmas, particularly on Christmas Eve.
This tradition is handed down in many Calabrian families who still gather around a delicious spaghetti with anchovies and breadcrumbs on Christmas Eve.
Pasta ca Muddica alla Calabrese
Ingredients
- 4 cups Spaghetti Pasta
- 2 cloves Garlic
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- a few Anchovies in oil
- 1 cup Crumbs of Slightly Stale Bread
Instructions
- First, boil the water and, when it comes to temperature, boil the pasta.
- Meanwhile, in a fairly large frying pan, heat the oil to sauté the two finely chopped cloves of garlic and wait until golden brown.
- Combine the crumbled bread in the pan until it reaches the desired degree of crunchiness.
- Then add the anchovies.
- We recommend that you drain the pasta al dente and add it to the pan, stirring in the rest of the sauce.
- Your Calabrian-style pasta with breadcrumbs is ready!
- If you wish, you can garnish it with a little dried or fresh chili pepper.
