Lockdown Cookup: Get Drunk in Love With Mitch Orr’s Effortless Drunken Pasta

PUBLISHED May 13th, 2020 06:00 am

We all have days we want something flavourful and substantial – without slaving away for hours in the kitchen. Cicciabella’s Head Chef Mitch Orr’s recipe for Drunken Pasta is a godsend for lazy home cooks (and really, who isn’t a home cook these days?). His free-spirited cooking style has followed him from the now-defunct award-winning pasta restaurant ACME to Cicciabella in Bondi, earning him the title of Prince of Pasta for his innovative creations.

One of the many recipes he has been sharing on his Instagram page, this jewel-toned beauty is ridiculously easy to whip up and thankfully, rather forgiving. Want it to be spicier? Go crazy with the dried chilli. Think it could do better with meat? Toss in a couple of bite-sized pieces of chicken – the messier the better. And, if you are secretly hoping to get tipsy off this, we suggest popping open another bottle of wine for you to down. Most of the alcohol is boiled off, leaving behind just the bold sweetness of the red wine and you, drunk in love with this easy-breezy dish.

Ingredients (serves 1)

1 bottle of red wine

Spaghetti

Butter

Garlic

Dried chilli

Dried oregano

Extra virgin olive oil

Method

Step 1:  Place the butter, garlic, chilli, oregano and a pinch of salt in a large frypan, sauté over medium heat.

Step 2: Simultaneously cook your spaghetti in a large pot of salted boiling water for about 3-4 minutes.

Step 3: Add a good slosh of red wine to the pan, be careful as the alcohol might flambé.

Step 4: Add the spaghetti to the wine. The more undercooked your pasta is, the more wine it’s going to want to drink. Let the spaghetti finish cooking in the wine.

Step 5: Whenever the spaghetti finishes its glass of wine, top it up with another glass until the pasta is al dente. At this point add a drizzle of olive oil and give it a nice toss.

If you aren’t comfortable with guess-timating the measurements of the ingredients, here’s Chef Mitch Orr’s pictorial guide for reference:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

STEP BY STEP DRUNKEN PASTA: Why shouldn’t your pasta be as messy as you? Your pasta doesn’t want to drink it if you don’t. Use something decent, like this aptly named drop from the good folk @unicozelo. 1: Place the butter, garlic, chilli, oregano and a pinch of salt in a large fry pan, sauté over a medium heat. 2: At the same time start cooking your spaghetti in a large pot of salted boiling water. Cook it for about 3-4 minutes. 3: Add a good slosh of red wine to the pan, be careful as the alcohol might flambé. 4: Add the spaghetti to the wine. The more undercooked your pasta is the more wine it’s going to want to drink. We’re going to let the spaghetti finish the cooking process in the wine. 5: Whenever the spaghetti finishes it’s glass of wine, top it up with another glass. Top yourself up too, why bloody not. Your spaghetti isn’t judging you. You’re in this together. The spaghetti can handle it’s booze, keep topping it up until the pasta is al dente. At this point add a drizzle of evoo and give it a nice toss. You’ll probably need another bottle open by this point. Pour yourself another glass, or just neck it from the bottle. Plate your pasta, get into a slurring d&m with it and pass out on the couch.

A post shared by Mitch Orr (@instakrill) on May 1, 2020 at 7:43pm PDT

Top Image: @cicciabellabondi

Niharika Murali

If she isn’t neck-deep in a self-imposed existential crisis, you can find Niharika trying to master a new skill – anything from handicrafts to instruments, or simply browsing the internet’s never-ending collection of dog videos.