Penne Puttanesca
I definitely took inspiration from this thread last weekend. What with Aimee's lasagne and this dish, we ended up with a pasta festa and I'm just catching up on posting my pictures. Today's entry was inspired from Becky's picture of John's Penne Puttanesca.
I was first introduced to this sauce when I was at university....way too many years ago. A bunch of us decided to go camping over Easter break and we were doing it the "proper" way. None of this campground with facilities luxury for us students....we were going to go bush, with shovel. Suffice to say that after 4 days, none of us smelt real nice...but that's another story.
One of my friends was Italian...Sicilian! And he decided to take charge of the cooking. Naturally pasta was going to be a feature...and he decided to educate us non-Italians with different types of sauces. He served up Sphaghetti Puttanesca on the first night. Unfortunately, he forgot to bring a colander...so our Puttanesca came value added 'con terra e erba'.
Whilst he was cooking it, he regaled the origins of the sauce. Of course the Puttanesca was the most saucy of the lot...with folklore being that it was cooked by the Ladies of the Evening (Puttana) whilst the men were 'waiting'. It was definitely 'fasta pasta' to cook!
My starting ingredients:
- Penne pasta, about 100 g per person
- Anchovies, 1 tin – chopped
- Onion, medium – chopped
- Garlic, 1 large clove or 2 medium/small cloves – minced
- Tomato sauce or tin tomato, 1 cup or so – I had some leftover bottled sauce in the fridge. I know that most of you make your sauce from scratch but for the weekdays, we always used commercial bottled sauce because it is quicker and simpler!
- Pitted Kalamata olives, ⅓ cup (or about 20 olives) – sliced
- Green stuffed olives, ⅓ cup (or about 15 olives) – sliced. I use the spicy marinated ones because I always ask the server to include 2 pieces of the next ingredient for me
- Red Chili, 1 tablespoon or to taste
Boil the pasta whilst making the sauce. Penne takes about 14 minutes to cook; so I usually time it so that the sauce is ready just after the penne is cooked and drained.
In a large pan, empty the contents of the anchovies including the oil (no point wasting that good oil). Fry on low heat for 2 – 3 minutes.
Turn the heat up to medium/hot. Add the onion, garlic and chili into the pan and cook until the onion is translucent.
Whilst I was cooking…..I noticed something sitting nearby. Do you see what I see?
Okay….my ingredients included a splash of red wine too.
Maybe it was a large splash! If so, reduce for 3 – 4 minutes or so before adding the tomato sauce to the pan.
Stir to combine the sauce and then add the olives.
Cook for a further 4 – 5 minutes (by which time, the pasta should be al dente).
Add the drained pasta to the pan…
…and gently toss through the sauce.
Serve on a plate.
My dinner!
Yes, Becky – they are about the same bowl size as what John got served. But the boys usually get to have seconds or thirds! 
for this dish. It needed a thicker noodle, either a thick spaghetti or even a linguini. Also, I found the sauce to be too thin, so I made a slurry with some of the liquid and some corn starch and added it in to thicken the sauce. I didn't have beef broth (thought I did) so I used chicken broth. It didn't seem to matter. The flavor was phenomenal. This was easy and yummy! And it was the first time I'd used oyster sauce in anything.
I've expanded my ingredient repertoire!
I woke up and it ws 40 degrees in my house today.
to you and your family
for the power coming back soon.
