Andreas Papadakis, of much-loved Melbourne restaurant Tipo 00, shares a simple yet delicious recipe and makes his case for shop-bought spaghetti, and why he thinks spaghetti (in all its forms) reigns supreme.

For me, spaghetti is the King of Pasta. It’s not easy to explain why, but there’s something about eating spaghetti that offers a particular sense of satisfaction. I think it’s because al dente spaghetti is unique; its shape and size give the perfect combination of soft on the outside and magical chewiness on the inside.

When I cook spaghetti at home, I use dried pasta, the artisanal kind that’s made with a mix of quality durum semolina and extruded through old bronze dies, then dried very slowly. Extruded spaghetti comes out differently from pasta from a pasta machine: it emerges porous, rough and textured – unlike long flat pasta, such as pappardelle, or round hollow pasta, such as paccheri, with their smoother, silkier texture.

You eat spaghetti in a different way from other pasta too. When you wrap spaghetti around your fork and eat a mouthful of it (as opposed to spiking three or four rigatoni at a time), it means you get the complete combination of the dish all at once. With other pasta shapes, it’s a different, slower way of eating. The dish is off the heat for longer and that will change the essence of the sauce. It’s a unique phenomenon in terms of eating pasta. There’s nothing else quite like spaghetti. I enjoy it with everything from a carbonara (see page 144) to my midnight spaghetti (see page 156) or an indulgent seafood sauce, such as the prawn one on page 40.

At Tipo we extrude all our pasta in-house, including our spaghetti; it’s our specialty. We manipulate and change the dough recipes too, in order to make each pasta best suit each particular sauce. It was essential to me that all our pasta be made in-house. It works for us in a commercial kitchen with experienced chefs and the correct equipment, but it can be pretty hard to replicate in a home kitchen, not just because of the extruding process but because of the drying of the spaghetti. Dry it too much and it becomes brittle, not enough and it loses the attractive textures that make the more laborious extruding process worth the effort.

So what I’m saying here is: you can’t really make spaghetti like this at home. There are versions you can try, such as spaghetti alla chitarra or tonnarelli, but those are more of a square pasta and so don’t have the same qualities as the rounded extruded kind. My advice is to buy the best-quality dried spaghetti you can afford, or else track down some freshly extruded spaghetti from a local deli or pasta specialist.

I love fresh pasta. But I also love dried pasta. They are both very different and very beautiful and unique in their own way, so there should be no thought of one being superior to the other. It’s more about choosing what goes best with the sauce you’re planning to serve. But for the ultimate pasta experience, the one for me that cannot be replicated, spaghetti will always be the king.

Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino

I feel like every family in Italy must eat this, or a variation of it, a couple of times per week for lunch. Although it’s incredibly tasty, it really doesn’t get any easier than this. The only thing to remember is that the garlic needs to be finely grated (or very finely chopped) and cooked slowly, so the dish doesn’t taste of raw garlic.

Serves 2

• 225 g (8 oz) quality dried spaghetti
• 100 ml (3½ fl oz) olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely grated
• 1 long red chilli, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan
• sea salt

Method

Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente, according to the instructions on the package.

Meanwhile, warm the olive oil in a frying pan over low heat and gently cook the garlic and chilli until the garlic is translucent. When the garlic and chilli are at the perfect point, stop them cooking any further by removing the pan from the heat and adding a splash of the boiling pasta water. Set aside until the pasta is ready. Drain the pasta (reserving some of the pasta water) and add to the frying pan, then toss over low heat until it is coated really well, adding enough of the pasta water to loosen the sauce. Sprinkle in the parsley and parmesan, season with salt and keep tossing until well emulsified – the sauce should be thick and oily, and flecked with garlic, chilli and parsley. Serve in warmed bowls.

Images and text from the forthcoming Tipo 00: The Pasta Cookbook by Andreas Papadakis, photography by Mark Roper, illustrations by Robin Cowcher. Published by and courtesy of Murdoch Books. ‘Why spaghetti is the King of Pasta’ appears on page 58 and the recipe for Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino on page 154.

Available 30 July. Pre-order now to go into the draw to win a $300 voucher for Tipo 00 Pasta Bar!

Purchase a copy of Tipo 00 by Andreas Papadakis online or from one of our shops before August 31st to enter the draw to win a $300 voucher to Tipo 00 Pasta Bar. Online purchases will automatically be entered. If purchased in shop, please email a copy of the receipt to [email protected] by 11:59pm on 31 August 2024. Terms and Conditions apply.