Georgina Hayden’s sun-dried tomato assassin's spaghetti. Photograph: Dan Jones/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Lucy Turnbull. Food styling assistant: Thea Hudson. View image in fullscreen Georgina Hayden’s sun-dried tomato assassin's spaghetti. Photograph: Dan Jones/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Lucy Turnbull. Food styling assistant: Thea Hudson. Food Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for sun-dried tomato assassin’s spaghetti A spicy, tomatoey pasta that’s cooked like a risotto, but much, much quicker
Georgina Hayden Mon 2 Nov 2026 14.00 CET Share Prefer the Guardian on Google P opular in Puglia, assassin’s spaghetti is a rich and punchy dish that I just can’t get enough of. Unlike more familiar pasta recipes, the dried spaghetti is cooked in the sauce itself, and slowly “fed” hot broth, a bit like a risotto. Here, I’ve added sun-dried tomatoes for extra bite and bit of sweetness, and I’ve left the chilli level open, depending on your tolerance – one chilli is just warm, two is my own preference. You could finish with some parmesan, but it really doesn’t need it – there is so much flavour in this dish already.
3 tbsp tomato puree 120ml extra-virgin olive oil , plus extra for serving 4 garlic cloves , peeled and finely chopped 1-2 red chillies , finely sliced (pith and seeds removed if you prefer less heat) 100g sun-dried tomatoes , finely chopped 300ml passata Sea salt and black pepper 350g spaghetti A few basil sprigs , leaves picked
Dilute the tomato puree in a litre of just-boiled water and set aside. Put a large frying pan or saute pan that’s wide enough to hold the spaghetti flat on a medium-low heat. Add the oil, garlic and chillies, and fry for a minute, until lightly fragrant. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, cook for a couple of minutes, then add the passata and season generously. Simmer vigorously for five minutes, then, once the sauce looks glossy and rich, lay in the spaghetti, spreading it out to cover the bottom of the pan.
Cook on a medium-high heat until the pasta has absorbed the sauce, then ladle in some of the hot tomato broth. Keep cooking until all the liquid has been absorbed, then ladle in more broth. If need be, turn up the heat to high to get a crust underneath and help the pasta absorb the broth. After eight to 10 minutes, use a spatula to flip over the pasta – it should have a slightly charred crust underneath. Keep ladling in more broth, letting it absorb each time before adding more, just like risotto. The pasta should be ready after a further eight to 10 minutes.
Flip the spaghetti again – it should now have lovely, crisp, charred edges – then serve with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and the basil leaves torn over the top.