Anchovy + Charred Lemon Bucatini
Anchovies, in my opinion, go hand-in-hand with the summertime.
Last summer, I worked at a restaurant in Chicago. One night a week, if it wasn’t past midnight, I’d go to this bar called Good Funk. It’s a very trendy wine bar attached to an equally trendy restaurant. The wine bar featured walls lined with tinned fish that were served with bread and pickled vegetables and paired with natural, mostly funky (hence the name) wines. I’d sit at the bar, order some sort of tinned fish and a couple glasses of wine. The bartenders eventually got to know me well and would offer me many generous “tastings” of complimentary wines. I had to focus holding my composure as I left there to catch my Uber home a few too many times.
My first night there, I talked to the bar manager, the bartender, and the random dude sitting next to me who I think also worked there. I was pretty full from eating “family meal” before getting off of work, but I couldn’t help myself from ordering the anchovy butter toast on their menu. It was so simple but completely and totally delicious. The butter was herby and creamy near to the point of a crème fraîche. The anchovies were delicately and vulnerably laid on top. I think the bread was a classic white bread. And that was it. It was easily something I could make at home, but it had me coming back for more the rest of the summer.
That’s mainly why I think anchovies pair so well with summer. When I think of anchovies, I think of good wine on a hot day. Of happy hour oysters sitting outside in the sun. Of the first time I had my favorite pasta dish (still to this day after 6 years), the classic Venetian bigoli en salsa that is packed with anchovies and caramelized onions, in Venice, in the late summer my senior year of high school.
Moral of the story, I just love anchovies. And, historically-speaking, summer isn’t my favorite season. In a way, anchovies have made me appreciate the hot summers I’ve spent in Mississippi, Arkansas, Chicago, and now New York a little bit more.
Though anchovies remind me of summer, they also remind me of pasta with red sauce—for a number of reasons—but overall anchovies add a salty, oily, briny flavor that I think a lot of pasta sauces beg for. I consider this the perfect summer-to-fall transition meal. A satisfying but light pasta dish. Warm temperature wise yet bright on the palate. Hearty from the thick bucatini (my favorite noodle by the way). Still bearing some of my favorite flavors of summer with the fresh tomatoes and citrus. Ever-so-sightly smoky from the charred lemon. Other than that it’s briny, peppery, and packed with a spicy, garlic-y punch. Topped with a fatty, salty bite from a peppered pecorino cheese, lemon zest for some aromatics and to bring out the lemon flavor more, and a healthy drizzle of olive oil for good measure.
Unlike my latest post, Chicken Mole Poblano + Plantains, this is insanely simple to make and can be ready to eat in under or around 30 minutes. Just like the mole recipe—and most sauces—however, this sauce only gets better with time. Make enough for leftovers.
Anchovy + Charred Lemon Bucatini
Cook Time: 30 min. | Serves: 6
3 cups cherry tomatoes — or any variety of bite-sized tomatoes
6 cloves garlic - thinly sliced into slivers
2 shallots - thinly sliced
12-18 anchcovy filets, depending on how strong you like the flavor (essentially 2-3 filets per person) - drained from oil
3 tbs. tomato paste
1/4-1/3 cup light olive oil
Salt and cracked black pepper
2 lemons, both zested (set aside zest) and halved
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup grated peppered pecorino (I got mine at Di Palo’s), or regular pecorino + additional cracked black pepper
Crushed red pepper flakes
12 oz. dry bucatini
Extra-virgin olive oil, for garnish
Heat a pan over medium-high heat. Add 3 tbs. of a light olive oil to the pan once hot. Add in the shallots with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Once the shallots start to wilt and turn color (after about 1-2 minutes), stir in the garlic. After a few minutes and the garlic has started to brown, add in the whole anchovies and allow them to melt in and form a paste. Add in the washed and dried cherry tomatoes (whole) and cook over med-high heat until just blistered, when the tomatoes start to get a little tender and charred. Push everything to the side, add 2 tbs. of olive oil in the open section and add the tomato paste. Fry the tomato paste just enough to deepen in color and sizzle but not the brown, then mix in with everything else. Season with a light pinch of salt and pepper once again.
Deglaze the pan with white wine. Add in the bay leaf, turn heat to low, and cover.
Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, season generously with salt, bring back up to a boil, and add the bucatini. Cook until 75% of the way to al dente. It will finish cooking in the sauce.
Remove the bay leaf from the sauce. Thoroughly mix in 3/4 cup to 1 cup of pasta water to the sauce, dpending on how thick it is. Using tongs, transfer the undercooked bucatini straight into the sauce*. At this point, you want the sauce to be fairly thin and watery so that the pasta will absorb it and cook more. Cook uncovered over medium-low heat until the sauce thickens and pasta reaches al dente, about 3-4 minutes. While cooking, char the lemons by heating 1-2 tbs. of light olive oil over high heat in a fry pan. Once hot, fry the lemon halves flesh side down until caramelized and browned, roughly 3 minutes. Squeeze one whole charred lemon into the pasta and toss it together. Save the others for plating and to squeeze more as needed. Season the pasta with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in crushed red pepper.
Remove the pasta from heat, stir in the grated peppered pecorino. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Top with lemon zest, fresh cracked black pepper, and serve with the remaining charred lemons.
*I like to transfer the pasta straight into the sauce because it brings some of the pasta water with it and skips the step of straining, but you can also strain it and just add more reserved pasta water.
