Summer Pasta Puttanesca Recipes

PASTA PUTTANESCA

Steps:

• Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add oil, garlic, anchovies, and crushed pepper. Saute mixture until anchovies melt into oil and completely dissolve and garlic is tender, about 3 minutes: your kitchen never smelled so good! Add olives, capers, tomatoes, black pepper, and parsley. Bring sauce to a bubble, reduce heat, and simmer 8 to 10 minutes.
• Toss sauce with cooked pasta. Pass bread and cheese at the table and serve with Bitter Greens Salad.
• Combine greens in a salad bowl. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over the bowl. Drizzle salad liberally with extra virgin olive oil. Toss salad and season salad with salt and pepper. Arrange salad on plates. Garnish plates with black olives, if using.

SPAGHETTI PUTTANESCA

Steps:

• Cook spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water according to package instructions; drain; return to pot.
• Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, crushed red pepper, and anchovies, if desired, mashing them with a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring, until garlic is fragrant, 2 minutes.
• Add whole tomatoes and their juice, breaking up tomatoes with hands. Stir in capers and olives. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Toss with pasta; season with salt and pepper.

PASTA PUTTANESCA (TART'S SPAGHETTI)

Steps:

• To make the sauce, heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add the garlic, chilli and basil and cook these briefly till the garlic is pale gold. Then add all the other sauce ingredients, stir and season with a little pepper - but no salt yet because of the anchovies. Turn the heat to low and let the sauce simmer very gently without a lid for 40 minutes, by which time it will have reduced to a lovely thick mass, with very little liquid left. While the sauce is cooking, take your largest saucepan, fill it with at least 4 pints (2.25 litres) of hot water and bring it up to a gentle simmer. Add a few drops of olive oil and a little salt and then, 8 minutes before the sauce is ready, plunge the spaghetti into the water. Stir well to prevent it clogging together, then time it for exactly 8 minutes. After that drain it in a colander, return it to the saucepan presto pronto, and toss the sauce in it, adding the basil. Mix thoroughly and serve in well-heated bowls, with lots of grated Parmesan to sprinkle over - and have plenty of gutsy, 'tarty' Italian red wine to wash it down. You can also watch how to prepare garlic and chillis in our Cookery School Videos on the right.

SUMMER PASTA PUTTANESCA

Steps:

• 1. Combine oil, garlic, anchovy paste, pepper flakes, and oregano in bowl. Process tomatoes in blender until finely chopped but not pureed, 15 to 45 seconds. Transfer to fine-mesh strainer set in large bowl and let drain for 5 minutes, occasionally pressing gently on solids with rubber spatula to extract liquid (this should yield about 3/4 cup). Reserve tomato liquid in bowl and tomato pulp in strainer. 2. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add campanelle and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water, then drain campanelle and return it to pot. 3. While campanelle is cooking, cook garlic-anchovy mixture in 12-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until garlic is fragrant but not brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add tomato liquid and simmer until reduced to 1/3 cup, 2 to 3 minutes. Add tomato pulp, olives, and capers; cook until just heated through, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in parsley. 4. Pour sauce over campanelle and toss to combine, adding reserved cooking water as needed to adjust consistency. Season with salt to taste. Serve immediately.