’E Curti is a small, very good osteria in a town called Sant’Anastasia, which is perched on the slopes of Vesuvius about 13km north-east of Naples. We made a detour and stopped there two summers ago, thanks to the trusty Slow Food osteria guide (although no thanks to my navigating). One of the specialities at ’E Curti is spaghetti with dried nuts and fruit, capers, olives, herbs and a local variety of tomatoes called pomodori piennoli. The dish came about as a way of using up the dried fruit and nuts left over from Christmas, and its name, ’O sicchje ra munnezza, is a humorous nod to this resourcefulness – ’O sicchje meaning “bin” and ra munnezza “rubbish” in Neapolitan dialect.
Such joking is possible only if you are confident of how good something is. And the combination of tomatoes collapsed in extra-virgin olive oil and the texture from the various nuts, the slight sweetness from the fruit and the defiantly savoury capers and olives, all held in a twisted net of spaghetti, is extremely good. Which is in no small part due to the local olive oil and flavour of the pomodori piennoli, particularly because they can be hung and kept for months, wrinkling and developing in richness. That said, it is absolutely a dish that can be recreated with other tomatoes, especially sweet cherry or datterini tomatoes, or even tinned plum tomatoes (that you like the taste of) drained of their juice. Being able to recreate this is also thanks to a recipe directly from ’E Curti itself that is wonderful in its specificity, suggesting (among other ingredients): 16 pine nuts, 10 raisins, 18 capers, eight olives, half a kilo of tomatoes and 1kg spaghetti for eight people.
Reading the recipe, I was reminded of a friend and cook who once gave me a recipe for doughnuts in which he specified the precise amount, in grams, of jam to be syringed into each one. Proportions for pleasure, he noted. I had never known him to be anything like so specific, so I knew it must be important. And he was right – they were proportions for pleasure. It is the same with this recipe for ’O sicchje ra munnezza: the ingredients might seem modest, but they work. And remember, they are not so much an encompassing sauce, but a well-flavoured, well-balanced condiment to go with spaghetti; look for a good-quality brand of pasta, extruded through bronze, so it has the texture of finest sandpaper.
Of course, you might decide your proportions for pleasure are wildly different from those noted here. You might want 15 raisins instead of five, say, or to measure your capers by the handful – you know your ingredients and your own taste. Don’t, though, skimp on the extra-virgin olive oil: it is the foundation of the recipe. Use the best bottle you have and make sure to keep checking that the flame under the pan is not too high. A steady sizzle brings out the best in these ingredients, even if they are rubbish.
Rubbish spaghetti – ’O sicchje ra munnezza
Prep 15 min
Cook 10 min
Serves 4
6-8 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed gently, so it’s split but still whole
1 tbsp raisins, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes
35g walnuts, roughly chopped
35g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
8 pine nuts
9 capers
250g cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
A pinch of dried oregano
4 stoned olives, roughly chopped
A small handful of parsley, minced
400g spaghetti
Bring a large pan of water to a boil for the spaghetti. In a large frying pan set over a medium-low heat, warm the oil and garlic for a couple of minutes, then add the drained raisins, chopped nuts, pine nuts and capers, and let everything cook gently for a few minutes.
Add the tomatoes, raise the heat so they sizzle for four to five minutes, then add the oregano, olives and parsley. Stir, then take the pan off the heat and cover.
Salt the pasta water, stir, add the spaghetti and boil until al dente. Once it’s ready, drain the spaghetti or – better still – use a spider sieve to lift it directly into the sauce. Toss vigorously and serve immediately.
