SPICY SAUCE. Pictured is a serving of Pasta with Spicy Tomato and Pancetta Sauce, which can be prepared in 30 minutes. (Milk Street via AP)

From The Asian Reporter, V35, #4 (April 7, 2025), page 10.

By Christopher Kimball

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street

Zuppa forte, also known as zuppa di soffritto, is an old-school Neapolitan dish made by slow-cooking meats with garlic and other aromatics, along with tomatoes and preserved chilies, until reduced and concentrated. The rich, spicy paste-like mixture can be spread on crusty bread, though it’s more commonly diluted and used as a soup base or pasta sauce.

Zuppa forte traditionally was made with odds and ends of meats, including offal, but in our cookbook, Milk Street 365: The All-Purpose Cookbook for Every Day of the Year, we use salty cured pancetta as a stand-in. For best flavor, purchase a chunk of pancetta, which contains a decent amount of fat, and cut it yourself. The type sold pre-diced is too lean and cooks up with a tough, leathery texture.

A combination of deeply browned tomato paste and canned whole tomatoes, blended until smooth and simmered in a skillet, yields a sauce with concentrated flavor. Don’t use canned tomato purée or canned crushed tomatoes, which have slightly tinny, metallic flavors that only become more pronounced in the finished sauce. The flavor of whole tomatoes, blended until smooth, is fresher and cleaner.

Instead of harder-to-source preserved chilies, we use Korean gochujang, which may seem out of place, but delivers a similar complex, fermented spiciness along with welcome notes of umami. But if you can find it, spicy, tangy Calabrian chili paste also works well. Fresh basil and dollops of ricotta complement the richness and intensity of the sauce.

Editor’s note: To view additional recipes, visit <177milkstreet.com/ap>.

* * *

Start to finish: 30 minutes

Servings: 4 to 6

14½-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes

2 tablespoons gochujang (see headnote) or 1 tablespoon Calabrian chili paste

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 ounces pancetta (see headnote), chopped

4 medium garlic cloves, minced

4 bay leaves

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 sprig rosemary

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

1 pound penne, ziti, or rigatoni pasta

½ cup lightly packed fresh basil, torn

Whole-milk ricotta cheese, to serve

In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. In a blender, purée the tomatoes with juices and gochujang until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds; set aside.

While the water heats, in a 12" skillet, combine the oil, pancetta, garlic, bay leaves, tomato paste, rosemary, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the pancetta has rendered some of its fat and the tomato paste darkens and begins to stick to the pan, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the puréed tomato mixture and bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Simmer, uncovered and stirring often, until very thick and the fat separates, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, when the water reaches a boil, add 1 tablespoon salt and the pasta; cook, stirring occasionally, until just shy of al dente. Reserve about 1½ cups of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and return it to the pot. (If the sauce is done ahead of the pasta, remove the skillet from the heat.)

Scrape the sauce into the pot with the pasta and add ¾ cup of the reserved cooking water. Cook over medium heat, stirring and tossing often, until the sauce clings and the pasta is al dente, 2 to 4 minutes; add more reserved pasta water as needed to loosen the noodles if the mixture is very dry and sticky.

Off heat, remove and discard the bay leaves and rosemary. Taste and season with salt and pepper, then stir in the basil. Serve topped with dollops of ricotta.

 Read the current issue of The Asian Reporter in its entirety!
Go to <www.asianreporter.com/completepaper.htm>!