Pasta Puttanesca Ala Claudia

While I know it goes back to my childhood, I love to figure out where my food likes (and dislikes) come from.  But more about that later, let’s talk about supper first.

I’ve been wanting pasta for several days and after seeing Claudia’s recipe for Salmon Puttanesca which led me back to her Pasta Puttanesca with homemade sauce, I wanted it – it has olives, anchovies, and capers so it had to be good.  I made a half recipe and altered it just a little to end up with this:

1/8 cup olive oil

3 cloves minced garlic

1 qt home canned tomatoes, pureed in the food processor

1/2 cup tightly packed, pitted, and halved Kalamata olives

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon drained capers

1 tablespoon minced anchovy fillets - mine was heaped up a little

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed basil

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes - heaped up for Bev’s taste

Salt if needed - I added none

1/2 pound pasta, cooked to al dente - I used small penne

Directions

In a medium pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.  Add the garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and the remaining ingredients and simmer until the sauce is thickened and slightly reduced, about 40 minutes.  Adjust seasoning, to taste, cover and set aside (I added nothing).

We had some shrimp left from another meal so I cooked them in the sauce for about 5 minutes, removed to a bowl, and covered to keep warm so I could put them all on top.

Drain the al dente pasta, add back to the warm pan, pour in the sauce, and toss to coat.

Plate the pasta, add grated parmesan, add the shrimp, then a little more parmesan.

Bev and I both thought the pasta was awesome and while I've had it before, this may be my new favorite tomato sauce – thanks Claudia, I'd serve this to company.  While we ate all of the shrimp the leftovers still had the shrimp flavor which made me think about another flavor for it - bacon.  It may make it something other than puttanesca sauce, but next time I think I’ll start by frying a couple of slices of chopped bacon, omitting the olive oil, and see what I get.

I had a salad of some romaine leaves, Newman’s Caesar Dressing, parmesan cheese, and the remaining anchovies in the can.  Anchovies (from a can) may be like Brussels sprouts and you either like them or hate them – Bev is the latter unless they are hidden like in this sauce.  When I was a kid, salad was nearly always the veggies topped with Mom’s Italian dressing made from vinegar, oil, water (probably in one of those premeasured cruets if they made them then).  As far as I know, it had no herbage in it, but the salad often included anchovies and since I didn’t know there were so many agineers, I gobbled them up, and to this day I still enjoy them a lot and I know exactly where this comes from.  My disgust for cream of wheat came from the same place. 

And some really good news - remember the $600 million+ lottery jackpot from this weekend, well Bev had 3 numbers and hopefully will get some of her $20 back.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Pecan Crusted Chicken Ala Bo With Mac & Cheese

Two years ago: Pets And Stuff

Larry

3/27/12  meal date