Penne alla Puttanesca
Calories per portion 450
Ingredients (Serves 4)
400 g (14 oz.) Penne
2 lbs. ripe Plum Tomatoes (they make 12 to 14 oz. of Filetto di Pomodoro)
2 Anchovies (4 salt cured filets)
2 tablespoon Capers (salt cured)
½ cup Black olives (pitted)
Fresh or dried Chili pepper
1 clove of Garlic
2 tablespoon of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Parsley (with stems)
Description
This is not a northern recipe but it is so representative of the whole country that I couldn’t leave it out of my menu. It is probably one of the easiest and fastest pasta recipes of all times, one of those you make when you have unexpected guests for dinner. The preparation is quite simple, but as many other Italian dishes, it requires certain method and little care with the temperatures. Although the sauce is suitable for all kind of pasta, I suggest using it with short shaped pasta like penne, macaroni, fusilli and so on.
Directions
We start with 2 preparations which are listed in the ‘modules’: the Aromatic Oil with parsley stems and the Filetto di pomodoro (unless you want to use the modern Tomato Sauce, since the classic one is not recommended for this recipe). Right after we take the tomatoes out of the boiling water, we can add salt and drop the penne in the pot. Next, we have to clean the anchovies from the bones and remove the exceeding salt with a piece of kitchen paper. When the oil is ready, we have to take it off the flame to let it rest 1 minute. This is done because the anchovies have to gently melt into the oil and not fry; otherwise they would smell funny and taste weird. Once the oil has become brownish with the anchovies, we add the chili pepper flakes, the capers (also cleaned from the extra salt) and the olives which we will have sliced or chopped as we prefer. If we have fresh chili pepper, it is good to know that the spicy part stays with the seeds and toward the tip so, if we don’t want it too hot, we will just take the seeds off and use the body of the pepper without the upper part. Add the tomato filets and sauté the sauce using ½ a ladle of salted boiling water that will be nice and starchy from the past. Drain the penne when ‘al dente’ and toss it into the sauce. Serve with a little parsley sprinkled on top of each portion.