Take a quintessential Italian dish and keep two ingredients – spaghetti and tomatoes – before adding some unlikely ingredients. Here's the recipe by chef Carlo Cracco.
Orange-scented spaghetti with tomato and marjoram
The classic revisited with simplicity and a little extra flavor (from the orange essence and marjoram).
Ingredients
12 oz. spaghetti
10 oz. tomato purée
1 Tbsp. fresh marjoram
1 garlic clove
1 orange
extra-virgin olive oil
fine and coarse salt
Method
Fry the clove of garlic (with the peel still on) in 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the zest of 1 orange, wait a few moments and then pour in the tomato purée.
Add a sprig of marjoram, season with salt and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, until the sauce is thick, smooth and has reduced a bit, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
Halfway through cooking the tomato sauce, bring a pot full of salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti and drain it al dente. Transfer the pasta directly to the pan with the sauce.
Stir in 1 tablespoon of oil and salt to taste. Using a cooking ladle, form a nest of pasta on each plate and season with grated orange zest and a few leaves of chopped marjoram.