When I return to Rome and have a half-empty pantry and only a few minutes to prepare a quick lunch, I make this faux-exotic spaghetti. There are various versions on social media. At home, I always have a few things in the refrigerator and pantry: onions, when in season spring onions, peanut butter, soy sauce, and chili pepper.
It’s truly a recipe that can easily replace tuna pasta for lazy kids. I haven’t been a student for millennia, but I still happily make it.
10-Minute Spaghetti with Peanut Butter
- Preparation time: 10 minutes
- Ingredients for 4 servings
- Difficulty: Easy
- Ingredients
- 320 grams of spaghetti
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small chili pepper
- 60 grams of peanut butter
- 70 grams of soy sauce
- 4 spring onions (or 1 white onion)
- 1 lime
- A handful of toasted and salted peanuts or toasted and salted cashews
- Instructions
- In a pot bring water to a boil.
- Clean the spring onions and finely chop them.
- Peel and grate the garlic clove.
- Place the spring onions, garlic, and chopped chili pepper in a pan with plenty of oil. Brown the onions lightly, then add ½ a ladder of water. Add the peanut butter and soy sauce to the onions.
- In the pot, add coarse salt to the boiling water—about 9 grams per liter of water—and toss the pasta.
- Drain the spaghetti al dente and pour them in the sauce pan. Add a tablespoon of boiling water if necessary.
- Serve with a squeeze of lime and chopped peanuts.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- The sautéed onions should never become too dark, otherwise they become difficult to digest. It’s best to keep the heat low.
- For those who have access to chili pepper, you can use Chinese chili paste instead, which I love but don’t have at home.
- To cook pasta ideally, you need to consider 1 liter of water for every 100g of pasta.
