Cook, Eat, Smile

I went to the new Julia Roberts movie Eat, Pray, Love yesterday and got pretty inspired by the Italian food in the show (although I did cringe when a pasta alla carbonara came out with tomatoes in it, but I'll deal with that in another post).

This dish is called pasta puttanesca. It hails from the Silver Palate Cookbook, and has long been in my repetoire because this is one of the first cookbooks I ever bought -- and one of the first recipies I tried from it. Sadly, it hasn't been served in quite a while since there are several kid-unfriendly ingredients in there, but since the mice are away I can call up this long lost friend and bring back some memories!

Puttanesca apparently has something to do with Ladies of the Evening. I've seen several explanations for how this link to the pasta sauce came about. It won't endorse any of them here, but it certainly is an interesting and varied set of explanations.

The recipe I have calls for canned tomatoes, and in winter (or if you're in a big hurry) that makes perfect sense. However, it's summer, and I'm not in a big hurry, so this is a perfect chance to use some of that nice fresh garlic I got the other day, and this huge pile of local organic tomatoes I got this morning at the farmer's market. Oh yeah.

Start by putting a pot of water on to boil for your noodles.  Add a good dose of salt once it's hot.

Then heat some oil in a skillet and add some crumbled oregano.

Chop your tomatoes and add them to the pan. I used about 6 roma tomatoes here and that made enough sauce for two -- or one plus tomorrow's lunch! Romas are great for this since they aren't loaded with juice, and yield a nice thick sauce quickly. You can use juicier tomatoes, you'll just have to cook it down for longer before adding your other ingredients.

Speaking of which, here they are. Anchovies (about 4), a tablespoon of capers, a handful of olives, a couple cloves of garlic, 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper, and a teaspoon (or as much as you can take) of chile pepper flakes -- see what I mean about kid-unfriendly? (Note: you don't need any salt -- there is enough in the ingredients to carry the whole dish.)

Essentially, you just add the ingredients to your tomatoes as you have them ready. Pit the olives, chop the garlic, chop the anchovies, etc. The idea here is to have a chaotic explosion of flavours with every bite. You want to feel like you got hit by lightening or something. To do that, the ingredients go in as fast as you can get them in, and only spend a little while cooking together. This keeps the flavours from blending into a harmonious whole like they would in a long-simmered sauce -- think of an orchestra tuning their instruments versus an orchestra performing. Here, all the elements stay distinct, and surprise you as they play a different tune with every bite.

To keep true to this idea, I suggest you crush the pepper with a mortar and pestle so it stays in fairly large chunks and packs more punch.

Your noodles should be cooked about the time your sauce is ready.

I recommend you serve this with pecorino romano since it has a salty punch that is in keeping with the rest of the dish. Reggiano would be fine too, but it is a bit more mellow. You may also want a glass of wine (red, of course -- just sayin') and a hunk of bread. Mangia!

And, if you over did it -- and I hope you did, since that's the whole point of this meal -- a nice glass of Galliano on ice will help restore your equilibrium. If you were thinking "Whew, I'm so glad he stopped talking about Galliano" then sorry!, but if you were thinking "Where is he going to fit Galliano into this one" then :D

Cook, eat, and smile.