Quick and Easy Pasta Recipe: Simple and Delicious

Scarpariello pasta is one of those pasta dishes that you can whip up on the fly, in the time it takes to cook the pasta: you lightly sauté garlic in olive oil (add a pinch of hot pepper if you want a kick) then cherry tomatoes, split in half, and a few fresh basil leaves, which you sauté just until they start to wilt. Then in goes the cooked pasta, along with lots of grated cheese and more basil. Toss it all together and you’re ready to eat.

The dish has its origins in the Spanish Quarters or “Spanish Barracks”, a working class neighborhood in central Naples. The story goes that on Mondays shoemakers’ wives would make a quick and easy pasta with the ragù leftover from Sunday dinner, stretched with lots of grated cheese to make it go further. Somehow over the years—and I haven’t been able to find out how—the long simmered ragù was replaced with lightly sautéed fresh tomatoes.

Today this workaday dish has become quite trendy. You’ll find it on the menus of tony restaurants in Naples and the nearby Amalfi Coast. I had it a couple of times when I was in the area this past summer, in one case in a duet with that other pasta of the moment, spaghetti alla Nerano. It was perfection.

For Italian-Americans, the name Scarriello might be confusing, as there’s an Italian-American chicken dish of the same name. You might guess this is just another example of the Italian-American fondness for chicken, like the way aubergine parmigiana turned into Chicken Parm. But in the case of the Scarpariello cousins, it’s not just a case of substituting one ingredient for another. The two dishes have absolutely nothing in common. My best guess is that the same nickname got attached to two dishes that have real connection otherwise.

Anyway, whatever you call it, it’s a delicious and easy dish. And an excellent way to enjoy the last of your summer basil.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 400-450g (1 lb) pasta (see Notes)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, slightly crushed and peeled
• 500g (18 oz) cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
• A handful of fresh basil leaves
• 50g (1.75 oz) freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
• 50g (1.75 oz) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• olive oil
• salt
• A small pinch of dried red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

In a large braiser, sauté pan or wok, gently sauté the garlic (along with the basil stem if you have it) in olive oil until they just begin to brown around the edges. Remove the garlic and stem. Add a pinch of red pepper if using.

Raise the heat and add the cherry or grape tomatoes, along with a few basil leaves. Sauté over a live flame for just a few minutes, seasoning with salt as you go. When the tomatoes have softened and bit but haven’t quite melted, turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta of your choice in well-salted water until al dente.

Transfer the pasta to the pan with the tomatoes, along with a ladleful of the pasta cooking water. Turn the heat back on and toss the pasta with the tomatoes over a lively flame, until the sauce clings to the pasta.

Turn off the heat and add the grated cheeses and the basil leaves. Toss until the cheese has melted completely and the sauce turns creamy and coats the pasta.

Serve immediately, topped with a few more basil leaves if you like.

Notes

As mentioned, a Scarriello sauce lends itself to just about any pasta shape, though the most classic would be a short tubular pasta. In Naples I had it with ziti, who was lovely. Other tubular pastas like penne, fusilli, rigatoni or—best of all, if you ask me—paccheri (as pictured in this post) lend themselves well to the Scarriello treatment. You will also see Scarriello recipes with spaghetti and other long pastas.

In some recipes, you let the tomatoes cook rather longer, about 15 minutes, which means they essentially melt into a proper sauce. Other recipes take this a step further and add some tomato passed to the mix. It’s a good way to go if you like your pasta with a true sauce rather than what Italians would call a seasoning. Personally I prefer the chunky texture you get from a light sauté.

And you can mix things up with other cheeses, preferably those typical of the region like a caciocavallo, scamorza or—if you can find it—a provolone di Monaco. In Naples, it’s considered a good dish to recycle bits of pieces of leftover cheeses.

Recipes vary on when to add the basil, with some adding it all to cook in the sauce, in others the basil is added only at the end. As outlined in this recipe, I like to split the difference, adding a few leaves to cook with the tomatoes then the rest added to toss with the pasta. I also like to throw the stem in at the very beginning with the garlic. This way you get the best of both worlds: the basil lends its full fragrance to the sauce but also its freshness to the finished dish.

Related