For ➍500 g large shrimps, peeled & deveined
salt & pepper
½ ts red pepper flakes
6 tbs extra virgin olive oil
12 garlic cloves, minced (about 4 tbs)
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
½ ts sugar
500 g spaghetti
2 tbs minced fresh parsley
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. When the water is boiling, salt the water and add the spaghetti. Cook al dente. Drain spaghetti and return it to the pot, making sure to reserve a cup of the starchy cooking water.
Meanwhile, toss the shrimp with ¾ ts salt and ⅛ ts of the red pepper flakes. Heat 2 tbs of the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the shrimp to the skillet in a single layer and cook, without stirring, until the bottoms of the shrimp turn color, about 30 s. Stir the shrimp and cook until the shrimp are colored on both sides. Remove the shrimp to a bowl and let the skillet cool for a few minutes.
Add 3 tbs of the oil back to the cooled pan. Add 3 tbs of the garlic and cook over low heat, stirring often, until the garlic foams and is sticky and straw-colored, about 10 m. Stir in the remaining ⅛ ts red pepper flakes, the tomatoes, sugar and ¾ ts salt. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 8 m.
Stir the remaining 1 tbs garlic, the parsley and the reserved shrimp and any accumulated juices into the tomato sauce. Continue to simmer until the shrimp are heated through, about 1 m.
Stir the tomato/shrimp mixture, plus the remaining tablespoon of olive oil into the drained spaghetti. Toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the reserved cooking water as needed to loosen up the sauce before serving. Sprinkle with additional parsley.
In several cultures, the name of the devil turns up when a sauce get spicy... (Read Italian fennel in a devil's way).
Fra Diavolo, 'Brother Devil', is the popular name given to Michele Pezza (April 7, 1771 – November 11, 1806), a Neapolitan guerrilla leader who resisted the French occupation of Naples. Pezza figures prominently in folk lore and fiction, he appears in several works of Alexandre Dumas.
The nickname 'Fra Diavolo' came from an old custom in Itri, a small town between Naples and Rome where he was born. Until early in the 20th century boys and girls where who had recently recovered from serious illnesses were dressed as monks on the second Sunday after Easter, for a procession in honor of St. Francis of Paola, the patron of sick children. On one of these solemn occasions little Michele proved so naughty that someone called him 'Fra Diavolo' which stuck. It continued a long Italian tradition of portraying the devil disguised as a monk.
Read more spaghetti & linguine recipes: a quick spaghetti, spaghetti with scallops & tomatoes, scallops & rucola spaghetti, spaghetti alla carbonara, spaghetti with vegetables, raw tomato spaghetti, spaghetti with clams, spaghetti with small clams, spaghetti with oil & garlic, spaghetti alla puttanesca, Palermo spaghetti with tomatoes & mint, American-Italian spaghetti with meatballs, vermicelli with parsley sauce, shrimps & Brie linguine, butter & tomato pasta sauce, lemon pasta with sea spinach.
