How to Make Chef John's Grilled Spaghetti
In this video, learn the art of making Chef John's Grilled Spaghetti! He brings his signature twist to pasta by grilling it, imparting a smoky flavor that elevates this classic dish. Follow along as he shares his expert tips on grilling pasta perfectly and crafting a delicious sauce to complement it. Perfect for summer gatherings or a unique dinner, this recipe will satisfy pasta lovers and grill enthusiasts equally.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Grilled Spaghetti!
00:08That's right, I once saw a guy grilling spaghetti, which got me very excited.
00:13Except then he boiled it before serving it, which got me a little upset, since I knew
00:18that would rinse off most of the flavor.
00:20So I thought to myself, there has to be a better way.
00:22And this, my friends, is the better way.
00:26Since after grilling, we're going to cook our spaghetti right in the sauce, which really
00:30did work out incredibly well.
00:32And to get started, what we'll need is some dry spaghetti, and for this I think we want
00:36to use a thick spaghetti, which is going to make it a lot easier to work with on the grill.
00:41Plus a grilled spaghetti is a brittle spaghetti, and if it's too thin, it's probably just going
00:46to break apart.
00:47And that's it.
00:48Once we've chosen our spaghetti, we will grab some tongs and head out to the grill, and
00:52we'll place our pasta down on some nice hot glowing coals.
00:56And if you only remember one thing from the video, it's that you have to place your spaghetti
01:00across the grates, or if your spaghetti gets put down in the same direction as the grates,
01:06it's going to fall through and start on fire, which is going to make it a lot harder to
01:09work with.
01:11But anyway, once we do have that placed down perpendicularly, we will simply let it toast,
01:16tossing and moving things around pretty much constantly, until we have it as toasted and
01:20or charred as we want.
01:22And by the way, this footage is my first attempt ever, and my initial fear is that this would
01:27start to char too quickly, and I would have pieces of pasta that were black, and other
01:31pieces that weren't charred at all.
01:33But I was very happily surprised that this actually toasted fairly slowly and evenly.
01:38So as long as we keep things moving, and we're continually tossing, moving things from the
01:43bottom to the top, you should be able to get the same results I did.
01:47And shockingly, I don't think I even lost one piece of spaghetti through the grates.
01:51This one was close, but I did save it, and transferred it onto a pan, and waited for
01:56the rest to toast to my liking.
01:59And what I was shooting for was a nice even light browning, which I decided I had achieved
02:03right about here.
02:04Oh, and in case you're keeping score at home, this only took about 4 minutes.
02:09So I went ahead and carefully removed that all from the grill, being very determined
02:13not to let any fall through.
02:16Which was very much in danger when I got to the last piece.
02:19And it was an epic, possibly heroic struggle, but I did manage to save it.
02:24And yes, I was so proud I made you watch the whole thing.
02:28And that's it.
02:29Once grilled, I headed back inside, where you're going to get another, possibly better
02:32look at how far we toasted this.
02:34And for a first attempt, I really was happy with how evenly this grilled.
02:38OK, we have a few dark marks, but I think that's fine.
02:42So I set that aside, and I headed to the stove, where I placed some olive oil in a
02:46skillet over medium heat, into which I added some thinly sliced garlic.
02:51And if you want to chop it or mince it, go ahead.
02:54But I decide to go goodfellas on this.
02:56And I think it's fun sometimes to see those pieces of sliced garlic in your pasta.
03:00And then what we'll do after sizzling that for about 30 seconds to a minute, is transfer
03:04in a couple rounded tablespoons of tomato paste, which we will kind of press and smear
03:09into that oil.
03:10And then we'll cook that for about a minute or two.
03:13And in case you don't know, by cooking your tomato paste like this a little bit when you
03:16make a sauce, it becomes even more savory and delicious.
03:20But please be careful, because we don't want the garlic to brown.
03:24So as soon as we have toasted our tomato paste for a little bit, we will transfer in our
03:28broth, which can just be from a carton.
03:32But I actually had a very nice, homemade, rich chicken broth on the back of the stove,
03:35which was another reason I decided to go this route.
03:39And what we'll do is raise that up to medium high, and bring that up to a simmer, at which
03:43point because it wasn't seasoned, I tossed in a nice big pinch of salt.
03:47And then I carefully transferred in my grilled spaghetti, and did my best to arrange that
03:52in the pan without breaking it all up.
03:55And it is going to take a few minutes for our pasta to soften up.
03:58So until it does, all we're really trying to do here is keep the pieces from sticking
04:02together, which is not going to be very hard, as long as you keep things moving.
04:08And by the way, as far as cooking times go, whenever we cook pasta directly in the sauce,
04:13it's always going to take longer than the package directions.
04:16So if the box says 11 to 12 minutes like mine did, using a technique like this, it's probably
04:21going to be closer to 15 minutes.
04:23But having said that, of course we're not going to go by time.
04:26You're going to taste and test just like any time we cook pasta.
04:30But anyway, we'll keep moving that around until it softens up enough to actually stir it.
04:35And once that happens, we are simply going to continue to cook and stir until that pasta
04:39is cooked exactly to our liking.
04:42And the key thing to remember here is that if your liquid evaporates before your pasta
04:46is fully cooked, you're going to have to add another splash of broth.
04:50Or on the other hand, if it seems like your pasta is almost cooked, and there seems to
04:54be too much liquid in the pan, just crank the heat up, and it should reduce quickly.
04:59And as I mentioned in the intro, the advantage to this method is that all those amazing grill
05:04flavors we got are not getting rinsed off in boiling salted water, but rather they're
05:08all being transferred into this sauce, which I think is definitely going to make for a
05:12much more tasty final product.
05:15And because we are cooking the pasta directly in the pan, I generally want to go with a
05:19broth-based sauce, and not like a straight tomato sauce, which is going to be much thicker
05:23and acidic, and I think way more challenging to get the proper texture.
05:28But for me, I think that paste we use gives us plenty of tomato flavor.
05:32And as you'll see, while very simple, this does turn into a very, very rich, satisfying
05:36sauce.
05:38And that's mostly thanks to these last final steps.
05:41So once our pasta has absorbed the sauce, and is cooked to our liking, what we'll do
05:46is reduce our heat to low, and we'll toss in a nice piece of butter, along with some
05:50torn basil leaves.
05:52And then we'll go ahead and toss this all together until the butter disappears.
05:55And if you've ever made our famous sauce segreto, you already understand the magic that happens
06:01when you add butter and basil to a finished pasta.
06:04It just makes everything a little bit richer, and helps amplify the other flavors.
06:09And that's it.
06:10Once that butter disappears, we will turn off the heat, and we'll finish up with a generous
06:13grating of Parmesan.
06:15And of course, we're using the real stuff, Parmigiano-Reggiano.
06:20And once our grilled spaghetti has been cheesed, we'll give it one final toss, and maybe a
06:24final taste for seasoning, although that's up to you.
06:28Maybe you don't want your pasta properly seasoned, or you decide.
06:33I mean, you are after all the Walt Whitman of an additional salt sprinkling.
06:37But either way, once we decide it's done, we'll go ahead and transfer that into a warm
06:41bowl.
06:42And as I was doing this, I could not wait to taste it, because it just smelled amazing.
06:47But before I grabbed a fork, I finished up with a little more grated cheese, plus a little
06:52pinch of chili flake, followed by the world's smallest and most adorable basil sprig, and
06:58after taking some contractually obligated pictures, I grabbed a fork and a spoon and
07:03went in for the official taste, which ended up being very, very weird, but not bad weird,
07:10good weird.
07:11All right, this actually took me three bites to figure out.
07:14All right, the first bite I did not understand, and I wasn't sure this had worked.
07:20But after the second bite, I was thinking, man, this is pretty good.
07:24By the time I'd finished the third bite, I was absolutely in love with this technique.
07:28So at this point, I deem this experiment a complete success.
07:32But of course, the question remains, is it really worth the extra effort to grill spaghetti?
07:36Well, you know what?
07:37I really can't answer that.
07:38I mean, is it really worth browning a piece of meat in a pan when we could just boil it?
07:43And why make toast when you can just have bread?
07:46And while these are not perfect analogies, I think the point is, for your true culinary
07:50adventurer, I definitely think this is worth a try, OK, since this only does take a couple
07:56minutes to grill.
07:57Which reminds me, I had also grilled some eggplant and peppers on the same fire.
08:02So with the leftovers, I tried a bowl with that on top, plus a nice scattering of basil
08:06and fresh oregano.
08:07And as much as I love the plain grilled spaghetti, this was even more outstanding.
08:13So if you do make this, I think it would be a great base for some other kind of grilled
08:16foods, whether it's a simple vegetable preparation like this, or some grilled chicken or steak
08:22or pork chops.
08:23OK, I have a hard time thinking of things that wouldn't be good on this, but no matter
08:27what you serve this with, I think you're in for a fun and fascinating experiment.
08:32Which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon.
08:36So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
08:40more info, as usual.
08:43And as always, enjoy!