This Paccheri calabrese recipe is somewhat spicy recipe with the inclusion of chilli, midlanduja (our rendition of nduja) and chorizo. So what is Paccheri then? It’s quite simply yet another shape of pasta, if you can’t get the paccheri variety then you can use cannelloni tubes or penne pasta instead, heck just rename the dish to penne alla Calabrese instead.
The Pasta Water Hack!
The best tip for any pasta dish is to save a mug full of the pasta cooking water, the salty and starchy water will help your sauce be thinned out if required and emulsify it. There’s lots of content out there which will teach these techniques, a life skill maybe, a great cooking hack yes! On the same note, don’t worry about letting it cool down, should you happen to use pasta water that is at almost boiling point, you will find when you come to add it to such dishes as carbonara that you will scramble the eggs. Paccheri Calabrese won’t suffer from this, but it’s worth bearing in mind.
This dish is one that used to be featured in one of the chain Italian restaurants on the UK high street. It was a reasonably good recreation of the classic and ours is also a rendition of the classic itself. We prefer to use chorizo than pepperoni in the recipe but the choice is yours.
Paccheri Calabrese Is a Must Try Pasta Dish
Everyone has favourites, this is one that stands out to us, not only because it features various different Italian Salumi greats, but because of the layers of flavour this dish manages to encapsulate. Its tomatoey, creamy and spicy sauce lays the base to the pasta smothered with superb cured and fermented meats. When you use great quality produce like ours you’re going to elevate the standard version of this recipe to the next level. Cook it a a few times for yourself, then wow your friends with this.
After learning the skill of opening up the flavours of the midlanduja with lemon juice and honey, the crooks of the recipe forms from these flavours. The nduja also makes up the second half of the recipe name, as it originates from a town called Spilinga in Calabria. If you like it a little spicy then this recipe will be right up your street!
Paccheri Calabrese
Course: MainCuisine: Italian2
servings10
minutes20
minutes30
minutesIngredients
12 cannelloni tubes
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
40g Midlanduja
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 chicken breast, sliced into 1/4cm slices
1 onion
1/4 cup basil leaves
2 Tbsp tomato purée
1/2 cup vermouth
250ml pasata
5 finger chillies, finely chopped
2 Tbsp mascarpone cheese
Directions
- Bring a pan of water to the boil and add a good pinch of salt. Add the pasta tubes to the water and simmer for 12 minutes until al dente.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic for a few seconds, add the midlanduja, the honey, chorizo and lemon juice, cook until the sausage meat is starting to brown up and get crispy on the outside.
- Add the vermouth and chicken along with the tomato purée, stir well and leave to simmer for 5 minutes until the chicken has cooked through.
- Put in the chillies and mascarpone cheese, stir through and serve immediately.
