This simple yet oh-so-delicious recipe is very old… My grandmother, after whom I was named, often made it. The dish is reminiscent of the Italian pasta of the poor Italian South that used all the daily, humble materials to feed an entire family. Grandma Kiriaki, however, was not an Italian but an authentic woman of Laconia and she made the spaghetti yahni in the summer, when tomatoes were in abundance, but also during fasting periods, that she observed faithfully to the end.
The main feature of this dish, at least the way she cooked it, was the intense presence of cinnamon. I still remember her adding more cinnamon to the spaghetti when she served it, always accompanying it with some bread that she used to scoop up all the sauce so delicious that it was a shame to waste.
Spaghetti yahni also has a very interesting “flexibility”. We can reduce the amount of cinnamon and add fresh basil leaves or pesto, and immediately get a very special and fresh-tasting dish. Spicy food lovers can add cayenne pepper, paprika sauce or even chili peppers depending on what they candle!
INGREDIENTS
(for 2 people)
- 300g of spaghetti
- 1 dried onion, mashed
- 1 fresh onion, chopped (the white and the tender green part)
- 1 clove of garlic, mashed
- 2 medium ripe tomatoes
- 1 tbsp of tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cinnamon stick and 1 tsp of cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp of sugar (optional)
- Salt and epper
- 2-3 tbsp of olive oil
* If you do not have fresh tomatoes, use a can of mashed tomatoes and omit the paste from your recipe
INSTRUCTIONS
Fill a pot with enough water to pre-boil the spaghetti.
In a deep frying pan or a shallow pot, pour olive oil, onion (fresh and dry), garlic, cinnamon (the stick and the powder) and the bay leaf. Cook them in medium to strong heat for 3-4 minutes. Then add the fresh tomatoes and the paste along with the sugar – if you choose to include it – lower the heat and let the sauce boil for 7-8 minutes.
Meanwhile, the water for the spaghetti is ready, so add salt and boil the pasta for half the time you usually do.
Bring the pot with the spaghetti close to the one with the sauce. With a large fork or food grabber, bring the spaghetti over to the sauce, make sure to grab along some of the water, as the pasta needs it to boil.
Stir the spaghetti well with the sauce and continue boiling for a few more minutes, if necessary add some more water to the already boiling pot.
And you’re done! Serve, grating your favourite kind of cheese over the spaghetti yahni. And should you choose to omit the cheese entirely, you’ll have a very nice dish, appropriate for fasting.
