I picked up the latest issue of Tastes of Italia magazine the other day and their recipe for Spaghetti Puttanesca looked so easy and delicious that I had to try it.
I started by sauteing four cloves of garlic that had been sliced, three anchovies, and a half a teaspoon of hot red pepper flakes in six tablespoons of olive oil. As all that stuff heats up in the oil I took a fork and I mashed up the anchovies.
Next I added two tablespoons of the tomato paste. I have an unholy love for the brand of tomato paste in the above picture. It's processed and full of additives but it's good and I get like three or four meals out of it. 
After mixing all the tomato paste in with the stuff I was sauteing, I opened a can of jumbo black olives and I drained the juice. I sliced up the black olives and tossed them in the pan. Then I sliced up a few green olives and tossed them in as well. Then I added three tablespoons of capers. I mixed it all together and let it simmer on low for a few minutes. When my pasta got done I drained the water off it and I put it in the pan with the olives and capers and I made sure it got coated with all the Puttanesca goodness. Here's how it turned out:
All in all it tasted very good. It was a different flavor than what we here at Monkey Central are used to but over all it was delicious. A word of caution though, what with the anchovies, the olives, and the capers, this dish is very salty so don't add any salt at any time during cooking or before eating. I'll definitely make this dish again but it will be six or so months before I do.
9 comments:
Yet another delish Cooking w/ Monkey post. Did you pair this with some kind of protein? I find, if I don't eat protein with pasta, I'm hungry in like, 12 minutes.
Tomato paste in a tube is the greatest invention EVER!
i adore the taste of italia magazine!
you do know what putanesca means, right? i love it, only i skin the anchovies. ICK!
Thanks for the recipe...now I'm starving tho.....
I LOVE pasta puttanesca. At my restaurant, we called it "whore pasta" because we read somewhere that ladies of the evening in days of yore would make this pasta to entice customers. It said that the aroma of the peppers and olives and such was so wonderful that they couldn't resist the ladies' charms.
Whore pasta = deliciousness
Those pastes in the tube are great to take on backpacking trips too - a lot of spice in a small package.
Yum, yum, yum. Olivey yum.
When I lived in Norway there was a vast array of foods that came in toothpaste tubes, including caviar (yuck.) They were great for picnics.
Speaking of Spaghetti Puttanesca, do yourself a favor and get the audio book of A Series of Unfortunate Events read by Tim Curry. The evil Count Olaf forces the lovely Baudelaire orphans to make spaghetti puttanesca.
Stefano, ci vuole pancetta e olivi verdi, se forse una vera pasta puttanesca.
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