I love a hearty red spaghetti sauce, especially in winter! The weather here in Melbourne has turned icy so it's a great time to warm up with this spaghetti with spicy chicken cacciatore sauce. I like to use a mix of olives for this dish (big green, small green, kalamata) and some fresh basil at the end to give it a pop of colour. Stay warm everyone!
Serves 4
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
Ingredients
Olive oil
4 boneless chicken thighs
200g button mushrooms
4 rashers middle bacon
2 sprigs rosemary
2 anchovies
2 strips of red capsicum, from the jar
100g mixed olives, deseeded
2 cloves garlic
1 long red chili
1/2 cup red wine
700ml jar tomato passata
500g dried spaghetti
Fresh basil leaves, to serve
Grated parmesan, to serve
Method
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.
Prepare your sauce ingredients. Cut the chicken into bite-size chunks. Halve the mushrooms. Dice the bacon, anchovies and red capsicum. Strip the rosemary from the stalks, crush the garlic and slice the red chili. You're good to go!
Heat olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed frying pan. Add the chicken and cook for a few minutes until it's mostly changed colour. Add the garlic, mushrooms, bacon, rosemary, anchovies and capsicum.
Add in the olives and chili and cook, tossing regularly until everything is lovely and golden.
Pour in the wine and cook for 3-4 minutes until the wine has reduced by half.
Add in the passata and stir. Bring to a simmer, turn the heat down to low and leave for 15 minutes while you cook the pasta.
Add spaghetti to boiling water and cook for 12-15 minutes, depending on packet instructions.
Grate the parmesan.
Reserve 1/4 cup of the starchy pasta cooking liquid and drain the rest. Add the pasta to the sauce pan and toss, using the starchy water to loosen the sauce if need be. Add half the basil leaves and stir through.
Divide the pasta between your bowls, add remaining fresh basil leaves and top with grated parmesan.
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