Pasta Puttanesca

Ah... I fondly remember my first exposure to pasta puttanesca ("streetwalker style"). Back in the 1960s, Mike Douglas, a big band singer, hosted an afternoon talk/variety show. He always had a cohost who filmed an entire week of episodes with Mike, so you got to know the cohost. A favorite cohost of Mike, and us, was the funnyman Dom Deluise, and there was always a cooking segment or two when Dom was on. One time, he cooked pasta puttanesca, full of olives, garlic, and capers, and my Mom and I were drooling. So my Mom made it exactly like Dom, and we absolutely loved it. Over time, this dish seemed to fall off the rotation.

Fast forward to the mid 1980s. I was living in San Jose, California, and saw a cookbook called, "Eat This, It'll Make You Feel Better", by Dom Deluise. The book is hilarious, just very funny, like Dom, but the recipes are delicious, and I began making his Pasta Puttanesca again. Over the years, I've made changes and substitutions according to what I have on hand. As my Italian mother's daughter, I always have a chunk of parmesan, various pastas, some kind of canned tomatoes and a selection of olives in the house, as well as onions, garlic and anchovies. I usually have capers, too, because I love them. And there is your puttanesca!

I've found that you can use cheapo canned black olives successfully, but if you do, you really need the bite of the capers. Green pimento or salad olives are a reasonable substitute for capers and look pretty, too. Whole San Marzano tomatoes don't add anything special here, so save them for your spaghetti sauce and use crushed tomatoes instead. Fire roasted, or tomatoes with basil don't seem to make much difference, either, so just use whatever you have on hand. I like a little bit of anchovy paste, or a couple of fillets in this, but leave them out entirely if you don't like them, especially if you are using very salty capers or oil cured olives. Just remember, the more olives, the better!

Here is what I did:

Extra virgin olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

2 or 3 large garlic cloves, minced

16 oz can pitted black olives, halved

4 Tbs capers, not rinsed

1 Tbs torn fresh basil, or 1/2 tsp dry

One 28 oz can crushed tomatoes 

Pinch of red pepper flakes

8 oz dried spaghetti of your choice

In a large, deep saute pan, 12" x 2", saute the onion in olive oil till transparent over medium high heat, add in the garlic for a minute. Add anchovy paste, too, if you are using it - I didn't last night.  Next, add the drained olives, or rinsed olives if using very salty or oil cured olives, and the capers and saute till everything is fragrant, a couple of minutes. Add in the tomatoes, stir well, bring to a slow simmer on medium low heat, and let it simmer for 20 minutes, stirring often so nothing burns. If using dry basil, add that and the red pepper while simmering.

While simmering, cook the spaghetti just till al dente. Nothing worse than mushy pasta. Ugh.  Strain the pasta, reserving a cup of the cooking water. Stir the pasta into the sauce while on the stove, still simmering, adding a few spoons if the water if the sauce is too thick. Taste for salt, but you shouldn't need any. Serve plain, or with parmesan.

Feeds 4 as a pasta course, 3 light eaters as a main course, 2 hungry folk, or one ravenous Italian American.