When we were in Firenze we had a Spaghetti Giannini with Sicilian sweet peppers that was fabulous. Hot and you could still taste the freshness of the tomatoes. I tried to make it at home, but it was mising something, probably a lot of things.

Visually it appeared to be a sauce of mostly olive oil with some chunks of fresh tomatoe and of course the Sicilian cherry peppers. When mixed with the noodles they glistened with the delicious oil. Mine sauce came out to much like a tomatoe soup.

Anyone know of a recipe for this sauce or one like it?

Thanks,
jb

You might have better luck if you asked the moderators to switch this question to the Food/Drink/Recipes forum...

An Italian recipe called spaghetti Giannini generally only means that it was invented by someone called Giannini; it is generally not part of the "classic repertoire."

I don't quite understand whether the Sicilian peppers were sweet or hot. I don't think they can have been both...

There is a "classic" recipe called spaghetti arrabbiata, or "angry" spaghetti. It is made with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and peperoncini (dried hot chile peppers). Spaghetti Giannini sounds like a variation of it, using fresh hot chile peppers.

To get the same fresh effect that you seemed to like, heat a little olive oil, delicately brown some chopped garlic in it, add fresh diced tomatoes (without skin; you can also use canned diced tomatoes), chili peppers (fresh chopped or dried), and cook only until the tomatoes are heated up. Serve immediately.

If spaghetti Giannini was made with tiny Pachino tomatoes from Sicily, you could try to find the so-called grape tomatoes, halve or quarter them and proceed as above.

It's a North American misconception that every Italian spaghetti sauce with tomatoes has to be cooked for hours and hours. Generally, the opposite is true.

Hop over the Kyle Phillips' site www.italianfood.about.com. He has a huge inventory of recipes and is quick to respond to email inquiries if you can't find what you're looking for on the site. I am a devoted fan, he's never steered me wrong!

My guess about the "tomato soup" consistency -- cook it longer. That is, perhaps start with more oil than you're thinking when you saute the garlic, then cook the tomatoes (the entire thing) longer.

It takes somewhere around 20 minutes or so for the oil and the watery juices of the tomatoes to blend into the richer sauce that I like. I don't know about any Signore Giannini! I'd think that you could use any peppers, adding dried chile pepper seeds to make it as spicy as you like.

On the other hand, if the tomatoes are fresh and good, you might not WANT to cook out any of that freshness. In that case, you might want to drain away the juices before adding themm to the oil.

That's my free two cents.

Cheers

I think you hit on it Eloise. When I made it I didn't cook it very long, but I used butter and oil and it made an opaque sauce. I also think it may have been a combo of sweet sicilian cherry tomatoes and and the peppers.

I tried a few searches at Italian food.com, but didn't find it. I'll give the email a try.

Thanks,
jb

Junior - I moved this to the Food forum. You may have more success in this forum. What restaurant did you eat the dish? If may be unique to the restaurant but someone may know of the restaurant and could help.

JuniorBalloon,

I forgot one important thing, though, which Pedalaforte mentioned: If you're using fresh tomatoes, you have to squeeze out the juice and the seeds - and if you're using canned diced tomatoes, you have to drain them very well - before adding them to the olive oil and garlic.

You might also have another look at the first recipe for Pasta alla carrettiera at the site Valerie mentioned; it's quite close to what you're looking for.

The ristorante was Dante's in the Altrarno.

I checked out the Pasta alla carrettiera and that does sound like the sauce. Some of the other recipes I read had only a table spoon of olive oil. Ha! That's not enough to wet a single peproncino

Grazie mille,
jb