Sunday Dinner: Spaghetti puttanesca

The menu:

And since I enjoy them so much, here’s another list, this time of things that I have never purchased or even attempted to prepare in my kitchen before:

  • Anchovies
  • Capers
  • Kalamata olives

…which basically means all of the ingredients that give a puttanesca sauce its very ballsy flavor. I don’t mean that it tastes like balls literally, though it might have if I’d been concentrating any less on it, but rather that I’m extraordinarily timid when it comes to dealing with heavy-duty flavors — and even moreso when I’m dealing with so many things that would invariably conflict.

Also there’s a lot going on when you make a sauce, and it ought to be said that while The New Best Recipe takes its job very seriously about telling you the Best Way To Do Something, it is very important to remember that “Best” and “Simplest” are not always the same thing.

For example, the recipe notes:

The pasta and sauce cook in just about the same amount of time. If you like the fruitiness of extra-virgin olive oil, toss 1 tablespoon into the sauced pasta before serving.

Yeah, which is great. Except you’d better have your shit together making the sauce, or else you’re going to spend the whole time panicking that your noodles are going to merge into a brick or else dissolve entirely. I know it’s invigorating to have a deadline, but it’s not the most fun when you’re trying a recipe for the first time with ingredients you’ve never used before.

Happily, all’s well that ends well, and this turned out very well. The anchovies and garlic practically melted into the sauce and gave it a full base, while the capers, olives and tomatoes all brought bright strong flavors, and the red pepper flakes gave it a solid heat throughout. The recipe didn’t suggest a garnish, but it could probably be well-served with crumbled feta and black pepper, just to make it prettier.

Thank God I picked a bold wine, though. If you’re going to attempt anything full-flavored like this, it’s going to tackle most wines and kick the crap out of them — a good, full-bodied wine is what you’ll need to go with it. I’ve had the Rocca Delle Macie chianti before, and it has the added benefit of being just as drinkable after dinner, when you’re writing on your weblog and watching the World Series.

If I’d had my act together sooner, this would be an extremely easy recipe that you could easily use to feed a dinner party with relatively little effort. All you need to make sure is that you have some of the more exotic ingredients on-hand (not everyone keeps anchovies on-hand all the time), and you can easily pop out a novel, memorable and enjoyably different spaghetti dinner than your guests might ever expect.

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