Pasta Puttanesca

Guys, I'm going to admit something. It might come as a bit of a shock, but I feel like I can't keep it a secret any longer. I....

I love pasta. I really love pasta. I could probably eat pasta every day, all day, for breakfast and lunch and dinner. I love linguine, I love bowties, I love shells. I love angel hair and ziti and orzo and fiore. I love pasta. Pasta is like the blank card of foods. You can make anything in the world using pasta and it will be delicious. Seriously. I have a cookbook called "365 Ways to Cook Pasta", by Marie Simmons, and one day I will try every single recipe in the book.

Oh yeah, this is happening for real

This recipe is not exactly from this book, it's from a website, but the two have only slight differences. The one in the book uses anchovies and oregano; this one I'm making uses sugar and chopped onion. Either way, they both rely on capers, black olives and crushed red pepper for bold flavor.

I've been absolutely dying to try this Pasta Puttanesca, and I'm super excited. If the name sounds dirty, it's because it kind of is. "Puttanesca" comes from the Italian word puttana, meaning prostitute or whore. So this dish, which is also sometimes called Pasta (or Spaghetti) alla Puttanesca means "pasta in the style of the prostitute" or "pasta the way prostitute would make it" or any variation thereof. Why is it called this? There doesn't seem to be any definite reason. I've heard that this spicy meal was made by prostitutes to lure in potential customers, or that the dish was popular with prostitutes as a "fast snack" between entertaining clients. I've also heard that the strong, gutsy smells of the dish made it smell "like a whore".

Well, now that I've put that image into your head, let's get cooking.

PASTA PUTTANESCA, courtesy of TheNest.com
YOU WILL NEED:
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
1 (14.5 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup chopped oil-marinated sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 (5.75 ox) can pitted black olives, drained and chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped capers
8-12 oz pasta (spaghetti, thin spaghetti or linguine)


Mise-en-place!

You will also need at least a 2-quart saucepan. In terms of the recipe itself, I made zero substitutions on this recipe; it was perfect just the way it was! Well, for me, at least! Let's cook!

1. In a 2 quart saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook, stirring, until softened, for about two minutes.

 
2. Add the whole tomatoes, with liquid, then break them up with the back of a spoon.

3. Stir in the water, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Stir in the olives, parsley, and capers; cook until heated through for 2 minutes or longer.

5. Cook the pasta according to directions. Drain and serve tossed in sauce!

 

Mmmmmm!!! Spicy and delicious!!! I do love a good spicy dish every once and awhile. This has probably been one of my favorites. The chunky sauce made it a bigger meal than I thought. I was totally stuffed when all was said and done, and then Fiance did the dishes for me! Even better than dessert! Which, by the way, was half of a dark chocolate Milky Way bar.

Tomorrow, the two of us will not be home because we got some important, grown-up stuff to do. We didn't get snowed in by the way; our apartment complex was totally taken care of, and I'm pretty sure they didn't even close schools in our area. In any case, dinner will most likely not be an event.

Friday night I won't be cooking either because - wait for it - we're going to see The Green Hornet! HELL TO THE YES. One Seth-Rogan-and-Christoph-Waltz sandwich, please! We were going to get tickets for the midnight showing on Thursday night but the only one we could find within 30 miles of us was only showing it in 3-D and I have grown to dislike 3-D. It just doesn't really seem worth the extra money. Anyway, Fiance doesn't get out of work until 8, and the earliest showing we could see was after 9pm.

So this means that Saturday night will be the night for Chicken Tikka Masala - an Indian dish that I have been dying to cook for myself and finally found a simple enough recipe for. Excited? You bet your basmati!

See you then, eaters and readers!