Pantry puttanesca
This is not so much a recipe as a lifeline: in case of emergency, open pantry door. It’ll require a little forward planning, since you’ll need to have the goods on hand for whenever a puttanesca hankering strikes — but truly, this stuff should always be in there anyway, because they’re shortcut flavour bombs! Splashing the tinned tuna in will pump up the protein, too.
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Ingredients
- ½ cup (80 g) salted capers rinsed and drained
- 100 g (3½ oz) butter
- 150 g (5½ oz) pitted kalamata olives
- a pinch of caster (superfine) sugar
- 3 cups (750 ml) tomato passata (puréed tomatoes)
- 1 tsp tomato paste concentrated purée
- 350 g (12 oz) dried casarecce, penne or tortelli or any pasta that has ridges or twists
- olive oil for drizzling
- 2-3 garlic cloves peeled
- 400 g 14 oz tinned tuna in springwater drained (optional)
- finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano to serve
Instructions
- Bring a large saucepan of well-salted water to the boil.
- Meanwhile, fry the capers in the butter over medium–high heat for about 3–4 minutes, or until crispy and golden. The butter will foam — a sight to behold. Pour through a metal sieve into a small bowl, then pour the butter back into the pan, leaving the capers in the sieve over the bowl.
- Add the olives to the pan, sprinkle in the sugar, crank the heat up high and toss about for 3–4 minutes, until the olives start to change colour and blister.
- Pour in the passata. Splosh another cup’s worth of water around the passata jar to clean out the dregs, then pour that in, too. Stir in the tomato paste and bring to the boil. Simmer vigorously for about 10 minutes, until reduced slightly; a splatter guard won’t go astray here.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain, reserving a mugful of the cooking water. (If not using it right away, pop the pasta back in the empty pot and drizzle well with olive oil to stop it sticking.)
- Crush the garlic into the pan. Flake the tuna in. Pour the pasta and a splosh of the reserved pasta water over the top and stir in with a spatula, so the pasta is well coated and the residual heat mellows the garlic out a little. The liquid will be reabsorbed by the pasta before you know it. Serve sprinkled with the crispy capers, parmesan, black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil if desired.
Notes
Shortcuts
If you’re in a hurry, just toss the olives and capers in together with the butter. Fry until the olives start gaining some colour, then splash in the passata and let it bubble away over high heat while you fuss with the pasta.
To speed things up even more, use a fresh pasta like gnocchi. It will cook in half the time of dried pasta, and even frozen fresh pasta can go straight from the freezer into boiling water. Subs To make this plant-based, leave the tuna out and use olive oil instead of butter.
You can use tinned tomatoes instead of passata, or even tomato paste (concentrated purée) and water, if that’s all you have; more about this on page 75. If you happen to have some fresh cherry tomatoes handy, blister these along with the olives and capers for a fresh version, and add some chilli to make it fresh and feisty! Recipe from The Joy of Better Cooking (Murdoch Books)
To speed things up even more, use a fresh pasta like gnocchi. It will cook in half the time of dried pasta, and even frozen fresh pasta can go straight from the freezer into boiling water. Subs To make this plant-based, leave the tuna out and use olive oil instead of butter.
You can use tinned tomatoes instead of passata, or even tomato paste (concentrated purée) and water, if that’s all you have; more about this on page 75. If you happen to have some fresh cherry tomatoes handy, blister these along with the olives and capers for a fresh version, and add some chilli to make it fresh and feisty! Recipe from The Joy of Better Cooking (Murdoch Books)
