PC 001 Spicy Salami Spagetti

The first recipe cooked as part of my Project Cookbook was the Spicy Salami Spaghetti. It was a fairly soft landing for me as Nigella Lawson's Small Pasta with Salami is one that is already on the regular rotation for me. I chose it largely because I already had most of the ingredients. There was leftover salami in the fridge from Jess and I being fancy,  spaghetti is always in the pantry, and I had some basil I wanted to use. 

Difficulty: 2/5

This was not a difficult recipe in the slightest. I didn't need any specialty equipment or skills. The hardest part was slicing and deseeding the chillis and that was no hardship. I bumped the difficulty rating up to a 2 only because I had to use two pots (one for the sauce, one for the pasta) and because I had to figure out what wine to buy. This is a child-friendly recipe in terms of challenge.

Ingredients: 3/5

Most of the ingredients for this recipe were easy to find and even already in my house. Those that weren't were very easy to source. I've never bought baby capers before, but I found them at Coles with a bit of hunting. The hardest part for me, the reason it got a 3 rather than higher was for the inclusion of wine. I know it's not a necessary inclusion, but I wanted to be true to the recipe. It definitely added a richness that I enjoyed but I have no knowledge of wine whatsoever. This left me standing in the bottle-o like a stunned mullet looking at row upon row of wine. I picked one that landed squarely in the crossover of the Venn diagram between 'dirt cheap' and 'ooh pretty label'.

Flavour: 4/5

The flavour was lovely, and a little richer than I would have expected over my usual version of this recipe. The chilli gave it just the right kick, and I really liked the bursts of tomato. It wasn't quite as good the next day as leftovers, but it still gets the points.

Repeatability: 4.5/5

This recipe is completely repeatable! So quick, so easy, so tasty. I knocked half a point off however because I know in my heart that I'll revert back to the Nigella version that uses canned tomatoes and beans from my pantry and nixes the wine. For me this is a speedy dinner, and I'd rather avoid the trip to the grocers first.