Puttanesca..

the deliciously flavourful Italian pasta sauce that basically consists of tomatoes, garlic, anchovy and olives and these ingredients are my most favorite toppings for one of my most favourite things to shove down my always hungry gullet. Pizza is def in the top three of my list of a mere 73 gazillion favorite things to eat and although my most favourite Pizza is just a regular Pizza Margherita with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil but if I do have other toppings they are garlic, anchovy, olives and tomato. This is the perfect pasta to serve with roast meat and absolutely perfect for your braai!

I follow a food blog called Rock Recipes and the writer came up with a lighter, less expensive and more delicate version of the sauce and I adapted it to make a delectable Puttanesca pasta salad and it worked like an absolute charm! When a new recipe carries my grey beard's stamp of approval then I'm a very happy cook.

As with the Rock Recipe version I didn't add the anchovy mostly because I don't have any and I'll rather go without than buy an icky cheap 'probably not even anchovy' version because that's when anchovy tastes sooooo fishy because the proper ones actually taste salty with a mild fish taste, I absolutely love the stuff and eat them just like that. When I have, I like using them in tomato based sauces, the easily 'melt' into the olive oil and add an incredible depth to the sauce without a trace of fishyness because with anchovy less is definitely more.

The other ingredient that adds to the delectable 'pungency' of the sauce are capers. You usually find them in a brine but I bought this bottle about 6 years ago from an Italian deli, the capers are preserved in an Italian sea salt and the amazing thing is that once you rinse the salt grains off they taste like pure caper with just a hint of salt.

All the ingredients are store cupboard stuff with just fresh tomatoes and herbs and it can stand for a few days and gets even more delicious. Fusilli pasta (screws) or the Farfalle pasta I used are both suitable to use when making the salad, I used the Farfalle because I had it and also because it's pretty.

I dress the pasta as soon as it's drained so it absorb the dressing, you don't have to but it definitely makes a difference. I dress the warm pasta with olive oil, salt, coarsely ground black pepper, salt, lemon juice and zest, mix to cover every bit of pasta and cover with a cloth to cool to room temp.

Here's how I made it;

Cooked the pasta to just a bit softer than al-dente because that's how my grey beard prefers it, don't over cook because the dressing wont absorb.

While the pasta is cooling prep the sauce ingredients

Blister the tomatoes in olive oil and add the onions

Add the rest of the ingredients

Shake around in the pan for a minute or so to mix and add the whole shebang to the pasta

Cover with a cloth and leave to cool, serve as and when required.

Here's the recipe:

Salad Puttanesca

(enough for 6-8 generous portions as a salad)

Ingredients:

for the pasta

500g Pack Fusilli or Farfalle pasta

50ml Olive oil

1 lemon

salt & pepper

for the sauce

50ml Olive oil

2 punnets Baby Rosa tomatoes

Salt & Pepper

15ml Brown sugar

3 cloves garlic

1 medium sized red onion

± 50g Kalamata style olives (that is the drained weight, about a 120g bag)

± 5 Capers

½ Red pepper (I used a red Jalapeno)

Small bunch fresh Basil

Small bunch fresh Parsley

Zest and juice of a Lemon

Method:

Pasta

Add the pasta to rapidly boiling water and cook as per the instructions on the packet, do not overcook, the pasta wont absorb any of the delicious additions.

Once cooked, drain and add the olive oil, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper and stir to mix, making sure all the pasta gets some love.

Cover and leave to cool to room temp.

While the pasta cools make the sauce

Peel the onions, cut into halfmoons and thinly slice (do not dice)

Finely chop the garlic

Rinse the capers and roughly chop

Dice the red pepper into ½cm dice (or half and thinly slice the Jalapeno)

Roughly chop the basil

Finely chop the parsley

If the olives aren't pitted, remove the pips

In a large pan, heat the olive oil to medium heat and add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper and fry until the tomatoes starts blistering and bursting.

Add the chopped garlic and sliced onions.

Toss for a minute to cook the garlic and wilt the onions (do not stir because you don't want to squash the tomatoes to much.

Take off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients

Taste for seasoning and add more salt if required.

Mix into the pasta

Cover with a cloth and leave to cool to room temp

Once cooled, add more olive oil and lemon juice if required.

Serve at room temp or cold from the fridge. (I prefer room temp, it's as if its more flavourful)

I served with with our braai meat (it was lamb and pork sausages)