LEGENDARY Arthur Ave Italian Food Tour + Babish Makes Spaghetti all’Assassina! | Heat Eaters

Get ready for the hottest season finale of Heat Eaters yet, infused with Italian heat! This isn’t just a spin on your Nonna’s tomato sauce – it’s a sizzling Italian feast that delivers a punch hotter than Mount Vesuvius.

Our journey kicks off in the Bronx at the iconic Arthur Avenue, where host Esther Choi and Bronx-bred chef Christian Petroni—a local celebrity familiar to everyone on the block— explore the spicy realms of Calabrian cuisine. Paying respect through historical landmarks, they taste-test various spicy cured sausages from Calabria Pork Store and try the renowned Calabrese-style egg, potato, and porchetta sandwiches from Mike’s Deli—a cultural cornerstone since the 1940s. Their journey culminates with a spicy cannoli with a fiery twist from Cayenne and Calabrian chilis.

To cap off her adventure, Esther jets to Brooklyn to join forces with Binging with Babish at his home studio. Together, they unleash the formidable flavor of Carolina Reapers from Smokin’ Ed to make “Spaghetti all’Assassina,” also known as “Assassin’s Pasta”—a dish so alarmingly hot, legend says a patron named it that after suggesting the chef intended to end his life with the excessive spice. Finally, they top the pasta with ‘nduja spicy meatballs infused with Trinidad Scorpion Powder that might just be Camera Guy Bill’s final feast.

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We got to be able to say that’s a spicy meatball let’s do a teaspoon oh y everyone is starting to see I might just this super quick let’s go this is really spicy oh my roll hey guys on this episode of heat eaters we’re going full Italiano and I

Know that normally you don’t think spicy when you think Italian food but there are some great dishes to try spicy Italian is more than just adding crushed red chili flakes on top of pizza or pasta you can go really deep and there’s some really spicy Regional Italian food

You think calabrian chilies which is actually pretty spicy I’m here in the Bronx on Arthur Avenue the mecca of Italian food and meeting up with my friend Chef Christian Patron who is raised here he literally knows with everyone on the Block he’s going to take me to a couple legendary spots to try

Some Italian Specialties including spicy sausages from collabria pork store and a proetta sandwich I’ve had my eye on from Mike’s Deli after our food craw I’m going to meet up with none other than babish to cook an epic Italian meal featuring a pasta dish that’s so spicy it’s called assassin’s pasta and

This Assassin’s pasta might just kill Bill Christian yes you made it oh my God I’m so happy what’s up how’s it going so good so much better out of you here okay first of all all I can smell is cured meat oh this oh yeah get ready then my friend this store behind me was started

By my friend Pete’s dad came here from Calabria and all he knew was one thing how to make cured meats this type of place doesn’t exist anymore will never exist again we need to show the world the famous sausage chandelier hey hey how are you welcome to Calabria po

What’s up do how you doing hello Hi how are this is my friend a hi nice to meet you I heard you put some treats out for us I did oh my God I got some and andu it’s a cab calabra it’s a calab we went to calabia itself to get the

Ingredient this is a spreadable spreadable sausage everything is hot overhead then I have a extra hot supera hot sausage soad it’s age for 7 weeks 7 weeks okay so you’re moving it sausage uhuh yeah we got dates on those things okay sa it’s age for 5 weeks Andia it’s

Age for a whole month oh really it’s very soft very soft wouldn’t you say that the cab appreciate spice and heat possibly more than any other region oh they like hot stuff you guys if you like to try some yeah hold on here come on

Bill I this is the I got you there go flat one yeah that has a good kick this is the extra hot a good kick these are the extra hot oh the are the extra hot what kind of chilies do you use for your all the hot stuff I love your chili yeah

This and you you like you so delicious I love the texture and the spice is actually pretty strong in that it’s it’s definitely got a lot of flavor like I said I can just imagine that in a meatball how do you get that texture though yeah like are you just

Casing it and he’s not going to tell you yeah and you know what surpris me you said it’s age for a month it’s that aging that makes it taste so good I’m a firm believer that the air itself in Calabria pork store is one of the main

Factors of the way that the this sausage cures so I would love to uja and um you you said you have spicy Panetta that in my meatball is going to be awesome oh God yeah how old is that night that’s beautiful been here for a

Few weeks that i’ been here for a few weeks is the best um you are an absolute angel thank you love you brother thank you so much so nice to meet you nice to meet you I hold thank you yes please bye guys hey such a gentleman I love you you

Guys are going to eat something oh they’re going to eat it they’re going to eat it please help yourself guys so this is what I was talking about this is the Arthur Avenue Retail Market 1940 my boy David Greco his dad Mike started Mike’s Deli legendary and that’s

Who we’re going to go see right now you’re going to love this guy come On Mr what are you doing kid what’s up bua I brought a real special VIP famous One my kids love that stuff she likes it spicy like us calab of people absolute Legend absolute Legend So This is my dear friend David I mean he holds rain here at the Arthur Avenue Retail Market

Absolutely legendary I’ve known him since I was this tall I used to feed him a slice of M he used to be so happy our spicy subas we do that that’s just a pick on a lot of regions in Italy don’t embrace the spice as much as but

Specifically Calabria and I grew up in ponza a little island like uh off the coast of Naples between Rome and Naples a little pepperino you know like spice wasn’t a big part of our upbring Calabria it’s about how hot can you handle it really they love it [ __ ] in

Calabria I know what I want very simple classic potato and egg sandwich potato and egg sandwich would do for us spicy we do a long hot fried and we do it with a top with that La bamb calaba I know you were excited about something the

Pora I I mean I’m a that’s real calab so you’re going to do extra spicy calab bomb on top yes I heard you beat Bobby fle yeah he’s all right Bobby for an Irish guy he’s okay with us we call him Bob around here in the Bronx so you and

I have something in common we both Beat Bobby F nice nice oh know oh all right oh did you no I lost it’s a long story I want to rematch Bob love relax Chef thank you so much oh pleasure pleasure what was it like growing up like as an Italian

American in this neighborhood Christian you know like everyone in here it’s like this is like the epicenter of my life right this place like specifically this Market that we’re in right now was put here in the’ 40s uhhuh because so many immigrants from Italy had set up around

World War I they were they were getting out of Dodge right Arthur R was just inundated with push cards sing meat oysters dry goods and what they did was built places like the retail Market they brought all the vendors inside I’m crazy history have you had K before sandwich coming right up Keith

How are you brother so Koto is an acquired taste it’s made from a very specific type of bitter orange and it’s an Italian soda Italian soft drink yummy absolutely nothing better to uh to wash down a Spicy sandwich I know right it it tastes like AI this is the poretta

Oh my God look at this wait wait where we got to add a little white truffle to this sandwich because we’ve upgraded him you I know I brought a VIP I never get I never got white truffles on my potato and egg now this porett is

The bomb is the spread on the bottom and top then it’s finished with the smoked mozzarella there two types of pepper in the middle one is a jalapeno and one is the c bra pepper sliced and diced pickled garlic and the spicy calabra oil oh Man that doesn’t make you want to be a better person wow that pork is insane oh my God that’s the calor recipe this is spicy this is spicy and it comes up on you you know it’s probably the spiciest like Italian thing that I’ve had hold on a

Second I’m starting it fits over here a little bit listen a potato and egg sandwich is essentially a fatata between two pieces of bread I used to get it with some vinegar Peppers but with these kabian chilies man and his stuff yeah like it’s like right there and right

There yeah and like the pora sandwich he put pickle chilies the calabrian the jalapeno and then there’s chili oil and you see like it soaked it and soaked saturated fully saturated into the bread and I love that the bread holds up to it it’s something that I’m going to crave

All the time you might as well be on a street corner in Rome having a shave poretta sandwich right very very good very all righty guys stop fresh should have got through mix with a little regular canoli cream uhhuh and then we add the cayenne and

Then we add the calibra chili Salud guys enjoy y dude I got all day bro it’s so spicy oh yeah it’s got some spicy it’s spicy yeah it’s got bite a spicy dessert who would chefs it was a pleasure thank you so much this was such a special experience seriously sorry Christian but

I’m going straight to the source you’re going to be seeing me here a lot I’m here anytime you need if I’m not here my guys are here but I I always call you when I’m here I’m like I’m going I tell you nothing makes me more more happy or

Proud than to be able to literally show the world how I grew up the people I grew up around and the food that inspires me every day and be a part of this is an honor so very grateful thank you all right just left Arthur Avenue and now we’re heading to babish’s place

To make an epic spicy meal come in what’s up Angy what’s up how are you you found the getting prepared we got to look crispy if we’re going to be sweating looking horrible with the hot style what’s going on thanks for having me thanks for being

Here all right so what are we doing today I brought you some goodies um we’re going to make an Italian delicious spicy Italian meal oh right I hope there’s a spicy meatball oh come on you’re like the meatball guy okay am I a meatball I don’t know that’s a good

Reputation so we have Uya Uya so we put that in the meatballs we’re going to put that in the meatball so I thought that that would be really fun to do Panetta that they also cure inh house and it has some like spicy chilies on it which is

Like awesome all right calabrian chilies with little fish yeah this is about as spicy as Italian food gets right now it smells so good it tastes so good I love the addition of the like the fish sauce by makes it more Mommy that way you don’t have to use anies although I

Brought an chovies anyway because they’re in chili oil in chili oil in chili oil I’ve never seen such I have um from smoking ETS Farm oh boy Carolina Reapers Reapers okay they’re Reapers I don’t even want to touch iten crossbows this the Scorpion Pepper powder okay I’m not going to sniff that

Don’t and this in the air it’s insane if we’re going to Spicifer do best which is bastard Italian cuisine let’s give it a shot so to prepare with your spicy meatballs I think we should make spaghetti alasa ooh nailed it first dry alasa I got it okay so it’s assassin’s pasta so the story be the pasta is this cook and Bari uh was

Distracted by this beautiful woman so he added way too many chilies burned the pasta and then to save it he had to add tomato water and cook the pasta in the pan sounds like a bad cook it was way too spicy obviously because he added too

Many chilies and the guest was like what are you trying to do you’re trying to kill me and therefore the Assassin pasta was born if this took place in Italy I bet it was not that spicy I know right it was just like little Ting like M but

We’re going to make it spicy and we’re going to try to kill Bill well you brought all the evil stuff from from smoking editings so yeah we’re going to make this properly spicy I think so like proper spicy like real spicy I think we should start on the meatballs let’s

Start on the meatballs yeah I know that you have a really beautiful meatball recipe I designed these to try to be as juicy as possible by adding as much fat as possible so nuts uh egg yolks in particular first I’m making the panad to that I’m going to add buttermilk and

Then for an extra hit of fat we got an amount of heavy cream this basically has to be a paste pine nuts pine nuts I love that cuz pine nuts have a lot of fat as well exactly and it’s very Sicilian we got to process together our herbs and

Which is oregano and fennel petta parsley the garlic I’m just going to add everything why not all right so pine nuts go in one whole uja into the mix we got some sauteed onions here okay exactly let’s get one of these let’s add that add the

Panad yes let zest some lemon in there we need an egg and an egg yolk normally you just add one egg for this amount of meat but the egg yolk is of course going to bring more fat parmesan and peino yep and the most important thing oh duh all

Right how much do we add of this we got to be able to say that’s a spicy let do let’s do a teaspoon I feel like let’s start there and then kind of feel it out does look and smell angry we are trying to kill Bill he’s shaking his head right

Now all right so normally I’d go full and get my hands up in this but I need to preserve my hands and my genitals you want to be able to go to the bathroom after yes yes I mean it’s one of my favorite things to do what do

You think perfect I think it’s right where it needs to be for the theme of what we’re what we’re doing today any Li oh my God wait I just got some on my thumb and my thumb is start is starting to burn oh sorry Bill we’re making balls and Searing them

I can see the evil red oil leaching out of oh my God you do you do see it oh my God it smells so good okay it’s starting to happen careful look at all that chili oil how gorgeous is that beautiful and we can just let

That rock for a little bit to let those firm up and now for the pasta now for the pasta yeah spaghetti mhm and then garlic they use dry chilies in this recipe uh normally but I think that we should use like the the um calabrian with the little fish

With the little fish that’s going to be so good so good I have this big bowl of Reapers let’s add how but we add this little guy I’m just going to paste this up so it’s not like big chunks in there it’s more integrated into you for that

And then we have tomato paste and some pada and I think we can add it to a pot of boiling water so it’s like a tomato paste water add the garlic chilies the calabrian chilies you kind of I think what they do is it’s just just like

Leave it in like that and let it burn and get crusty on the bottom try not to cough on my hands keep the food safe oh y everyone is to see I might just this super quick oh yeah okay come on guys I’m over the stove it’s totally fine yeah tough

Up oh there we go yeah yeah let’s do it oh yeah see and then you just start doing this very interesting right wow that’s drank that up really fast yeah very fast so I’m just going to keep going with it yeah I’ll say it again it it it’s insane

To me that this came out of Italy this is like the most anti- Italian method I’ve ever seen that there we go things over one bow I think what am I thinking it comes in a pair it’s spaghetti and meat balls not spaghetti in meatball oh I get it balls balls it’s

A beautiful that’ll help with the spice oh I love how the meatball just like that’s a bite super tender oh yeah you got it all oh it’s really good it’s really good it’s spicy it’s very spicy definitely but it’s more like the punch of the chili flavor like the calaban chili mixed with

The reaper and like the ghost pepper powdered like you get all of the chili elements in different dimension yeah and it’s not that bright fresh sort of taste that you get with with Scotch bonnet or stuff like that sometimes it’s the deeper like cooked yeah yeah something really good it’s really good I’m

Genuinely surprised when I saw you burning that pasta that was fre you out I don’t know about this but that is genuinely killer I see why it’s gone all viral mhm having it be like a little panicky spicy is actually really great and it it lives up

To its name it’s assassin’s pasta okay now it’s time to Kill Bill what do you think let’s murder bill first bill I hope they pay you extra for this I’m not looking I’m not looking I’m not looking don’t look if I don’t look it’s not happening the amount of gasps that

I’m hearing right now make me think I should stop yeah it’s okay it’s a season CU he he he spread it so are you excited I it looks delicious I’m just going to go in I’m just going to go in Big B do it do it do it do it do

It that was m mistake he just made a mistake it’s fine it’s fine it’s fine yeah it’s fine um this is a really good meatball it’s delicious right um I got to say what does this work wait here I’ll in the words of Elton John I’m Still Standing

I think not I’m scared when you wait yeah that spicy that came on faster though now I’m regretting that okay okay you win all right it’s spicy [ __ ] he’s alive oh God it’s just building yeah well Bill you know it’s because we love you Season Two Season Two we need

You around for season 3 actually kill you call me in 3 hours you know it’s it’s building tolerance when you hang with me that’s what happens your tolerance gets built heat eaters yes Andrew you killed it thank you for having me on and it’s season 3

Next mon yes and what you got going on in the Horizon um my cookbooks out right now basic with babish then bakes with babish and uh the the bed and babish is coming out soon reservations coming for that bed and babish is is the is the Airbnb so wrap you guys thank

You J so the finale that I’m going to bring you on food that you have to try it’s been a biggest seller here we call this Italian nachos because it’s made with truffle oil balsamic the chilies all the peppers that we love and we add paja to

It and gr chees there a parm chunks of par in there wo that was kind of Spicy hey guys it’s Esther from heat eaters thanks for watching please like And subscribe and for more episodes click here