by Erikson Arcilla

Created on: June 01, 2010   Last Updated: June 09, 2010

A Heart Breaking Puttanesca...

As we talk about Italian cuisine, pasta always take the top. Pasta is the symbol for Italian cooking. From Linguine to Fettuccine all the way to Spaghetti alla Chitarra. Italian cuisine is one of the world’s finest cooking masterpieces, at least that’s what I say. Italian cuisine is difficult to master since it has a wide array of components. Pasta is certainly one of them but let’s focus on something simple today, Fettuccine. Fettuccine is a ribbon of pasta approximately 6.65 millimeters wide and translates to “little slices” Cute huh?

Puttanesca is a dish that focuses on the use of olives, anchovies and other ingredients on the salty side. Having said that, Puttanesca is a dish that’s salty and somewhat tangy. It’s a dish that some Chefs regard as a “modern” one.

Ingredients:

Fettuccine ( or any ribbon or noodle shaped pasta will do )

White Onions/ Shallots

Garlic

Anchovies

Black and Green Olives ( for contrast )

Herbs & Spices

Olive Oil ( A lot )

Lemon ( Optional )

Capers ( They provide a sour sensation, for contrast as well )

First, get your water to a boil in a casserole. Then add salt and make the water literally as salty as the ocean. You can taste it to be sure. Pasta is something that absorbs the liquid where you boil it in, so make sure that the pasta will suck in all that saltiness to provide a nice salty taste. Now, the secret to the texture is that you don’t overcook your pasta. Make sure that it’s always “Al dente” a desired texture of cooked pasta in Italian cooking. After cooking it to perfection. Drain the pasta and make sure NOT to rinse it! Rinsing pasta washes away the the starch, and the result is your sauce won’t stick to the noddles the way it should. Instead put a little olive oil and make sure to coat your noodles so that it won’t stick to each other while you make the sauce.

For the sauce, you’re going to need a lot of Olive oil. Puttanesca is also an oily dish, but that shouldn’t trouble you since we’re going to use olive oil instead of your regular vegetable oil. Saute the onions until they are translucent. Take note that during this step, you don’t have to add that much olive oil just yet. We can fill that in later. Add the Garlic, Olives and anchovies. Cook them until the garlic becomes very fragrant ( make sure not to burn them ). Now, the next thing you have to do is add your tomato sauce. It can be readily bought from the grocery or you can make your own using crushed tomatoes. Add only a little since we’re focusing on the oil and not the tomato sauce. Season it with salt and pepper, you can also add a little chili if you want to, though the dish will become partly Mexican but it doesn’t really matter since majority of the ingredients are all Italian. Add your herbs! Now is the time to use your playfulness. You can use basil, tarragon ( take it easy with this one), rosemary, you can add oregano, and a whole lot more if you have them. The goal is to make the dish your own. That’s always the goal. Now to add olive oil little by little until you have a thick paste. After reaching the desired state, pour in the pasta and make sure the sauce coats it. Glazing doesn’t take a lot of time so you should be ready to plate it in 3-4 minutes time.

Serve hot garnished with fresh basil or parsley, and there you have it! A heart breaking Puttanesca.

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