Puttanesca

Whenever I hear the word puttanesca, I think of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Particularly the first book, The Bad Beginning. The series is about three orphans who go through a series of unfortunate events. In the first book they are sent to live with someone who is really awful to them, and in one part when he makes them make dinner for his awful friends, the orphans make spaghetti puttanesca. Which struck me as funny because puttanesca is a sauce made with tomatoes, capers, kalamata olives, garlic and anchovy, all things kids would likely not eat. I mean for the past few years even I have recoiled at the thought of eating any of it. I'm really picky when it comes to tomatoes. For some reason I thought capers had something to do with fish eggs, though in recent years I found out that they are actually the pickled flower buds belonging to a Mediterranean plant. Olives are something I have avoided since I tried a bite of one that was a garnish to some calamari, and it was an awful experience.

Recently though, I am willing myself to try new things. Last night I made spaghetti puttanesca, recipe courtesy of Everyday Food. I left out the anchovy, not on purpose, I had forgotten to pick some up at the grocery store. Had I remembered I would have used anchovy paste though, not actual anchovies. I pureed the tomatoes in my mini food processor before adding them to the pot, as I am not a fan of tomato chunks in sauces. I didn't add any salt, and I am surprised that EF does. The olives and capers are both pretty salty, and the dish had a salty taste without adding extra salt.

I enjoyed this. I used fettuccine noodles, the Catelli Smart brand. Catelli Smart claims to be a white pasta with the fibre benefits of whole wheat pasta. I would have used whole wheat pasta but I didn't know how strong the sauce would be and I find that the whole wheat taste can sometimes overpower a light pasta sauce. (For future reference I think whole wheat pasta would be fine with this sauce)

I wouldn't say I loved it, but it would be something I make again. It was a very simple recipe that took very little time and effort to assemble.