Spaghetti Puttanesca
There are some conflicting stories out there about where this dish came from, and what it means. It may make you blush! I invite you to google it!
Yum is all I can say here! You can put this together in about 30 minutes! This another one of those Italian classics. This one traditionally calls for anchovies. Not my favorite. But don’t stop reading! Instead I use anchovy paste! It’s easy to find and the flavor is a little more subtle. In fact, even though I’m not an anchovy lover (you will not find it on my pizza), my husband makes a killer caesar salad dressing with anchovy paste. You’d never know it was in there! My kids knew something was different with this sauce, but they couldn’t figure it out. They happily ate it and were blissfully unaware they were eating anchovies.
This recipe also call for some spicy olives. Most grocery stores have an olive bar these days. I just pick some up from there. I like the black oil cured italian style olives, or even oil cured kalamata olives. If you can’t find spicy olives, just get whatever olives you like and add some crushed red chili pepper to the sauce – or both the spicy olives and extra pepper- if you like it hot! Oil cured olives work best. You don’t want anything too briney.
Because this dish tends to be on the spicy side, and my kids are not olive fans, I just remove some of the plain sauce (before tossing in the spicy stuff) and top their pasta. They don’t know what they are missing!
Serve with some crusty bread and a green salad. Boom!
Spaghetti Puttanesca
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2-3 gloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh parsley finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon anchovy paste more if you like
- 1 cup spicy olives
- 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes plus 1/3 a can of "tomato water"
- crushed red pepper optional
- salt & pepper
- 1 pound spaghetti
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan and add the garlic, parsley and anchovy paste. Heat until fragrant and the anchovy paste has melted. Don't burn the garlic! If you like things extra spicy, you can add some crushed red pepper here or if you could find spicy olives, this is where you add the heat! If you are pulling out some sauce early for the non spicy people, omit the the crushed red pepper here.
- Next add the crushed tomatoes. Fill your tomato can a 1/3 full of water, swirl it around to catch any tomato left in the can, and add it to the pan. Add salt and pepper. Simmer on medium for 20 minutes.
- Here is where you may want to remove some sauce for those who dislike olives or spicy food. If not, add the spicy olives and simmer for an additional five minutes.
- Toss with hot spaghetti and serve!
