Anchovy, Chilli, Garlic Pasta

So this dish is going to be aptly named on the menu as PSP, Post Service Pasta. Heard me talk about this loads, I've done it lots and lots of times. It's the pasta that when I have a particularly tricky day, I go home, probably not eaten since lunchtime, apart from a few bits and pieces of tasting, I want something that's delicious, filling and warm and comforting. And this is that pasta I go to. I can deliver this in 10 minutes flat and it delivers a massive welcome home hug. All you need to do is get a little bit of prep done, get some water on the boil, get your pasta ready, slice up a bit of garlic. You can use, I use dried chillies at home, I just don't have them in the restaurant. So a little bit of dried chilli, some nice anchovies. And there's a really nice thing with this dish is that you basically, you start it all at the same time. So nothing to do right now until that pasta water comes to the boil. Just cut up some chillies, either way you want. Just use dried chillies if you don't mind. As hot or not hot as you want, doesn't really matter. Whatever works for you. There's no rules with this pasta apart from in the last two minutes. Best thing about this pasta is it all happens at the same time. You need two pans, one boiling water. What we're going to do is add salt to that. You want that pasta water to be seasoned, it's important. I want about two to an half percent salt, but don't worry about that. A nice handful of salt in there. Nice pan over here, we start them both at the same time. I'm going to make, Sam looks hungry, that much pasta. All right, that much in there. In it goes. That's going to take eight minutes. Now I love dried pasta and I will be serving dried pasta at Rosina, but only one at a time because actually it's a brilliant pasta to serve in a restaurant, but it's very difficult to do during a service because it takes so long to cook. Fresh pasta is two minutes max. Long pasta like this, dried pasta is actually eight minutes to cook, so it takes a lot longer. If we've got four or five pasta orders on at the same time, maybe 10, maybe 20, God, we are going to be in trouble if we've got dried pasta. So what we're going to do here, pasta's in the water. Now you start this pan at the same time. So we want six minutes there and two minutes in here. In there goes anchovies, nice anchovies, nice chilli or dried chilli, doesn't matter. I've just chopped them up, diced them, sliced them, I don't care, whatever's easiest. Remember you're doing this after service, about 1.30 in the morning when you're still a bit sweaty and still a bit buzzing from the service and all that's going in there now. I'm going to put into there the garlic, sliced garlic and then we're going to put a little bit of salt. Don't go mad because you've got some anchovies in there already. I'm going to put some nice black pepper in there and we're just going to let that cook slowly in the olive oil. It's the pasta that I cook after service at home, which I want to put on the menu at Rosina, but I think we should be true to it. We shouldn't put herbs in it. I wouldn't come home from work and chop herbs. Who would do that? It's a psycho. I would open a bottle of wine, but I wouldn't necessarily chop herbs. I think that's the essence of good cooking, Sam, is knowing when enough is enough. Right, how long has that had, Sam, on your timer? Okay, so come over here if you look quickly, Sam. Anchovies, chilli, garlic, all just like pulverised down to nothing now. All looking good, all looking soft. You've got all this oil in here, right? Oil from the anchovies, oil from the olive oil and what we want to do now is basically emulsify all of this. This is the trick of the whole thing, right? So that pasta is enough. That pasta is still undercooked. Really important you understand that. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to lift that over. All right, now what we need to do is get that fully cooked through and emulsified, right? So, look at that bowl of pasta coming up. Right, now I'm going to take some of this lovely pasta water. This is your friend, that goes in. Turn the heat up, keep the heat going nicely and we want to basically finish cooking that pasta in there. Smell those anchovies, smell good. Big fan of anchovies. You're trying to basically agitate the pasta, agitate all the starch out and use the pasta water and the starch in the pasta water to emulsify all that olive oil back into it. As this cooks now, it will bleed out more starch which will then in turn thicken it up again. But you'll be amazed at how much pasta water I put in there and how much it actually takes on. It's really nice. It's all gone, look, see? See that? We can go again, I reckon. Probably take the whole thing again. See that amount of water, look? I reckon that'll all be gone in a minute. You're basically allowing the pasta to swell, take on the water but also give out some starch and create a beautiful emulsion. Yeah, I do actually. I just think because I can then sort of manoeuvre the pasta a bit quicker. I do, but I'm not an expert. This shaped pan is really important. You know where the pan has got like a soft contoured edge? That's a nice way of saying that. That's right, isn't it? Contoured edge, yeah. It is a Hestan pan, but this is the pasta pan I need for Rosina. I need about 10 of these for Rosina. Is that all right? I don't really much care about any others. You see that emulsion in there? That's what I'm after. All that pasta water has been absorbed. Beautiful, beautiful pasta. Right, now turn that off. Grab some pasta. Twist it up like that. Any of this left in here. Look at that, you see? Look at that emulsion. This is what really excites me. I want then any of this stuff is great on the top there. A little bit of olive oil. That is my PSP, post-service pasta. Looks like very little delivers in spades. That is what I have when I come home from work. It's about as simple as it gets, but if you know how to cook it properly and you get that lovely emulsion going on, that is a delicious, delicious thing. Not for many people, Sam. That is the one. It's so good. Honestly, just try it. Pasta's slightly al dente. Super nice. Salty anchovies. Reassuring warmth from the chilli. The garlic is there. The olive oil there. The parmesan there. Nothing else. It's just a hug in a bowl. That emulsion is super important. I love cooking this dish.