If you feel like taking a stroll through Naples, I suggest starting by preparing one of its recipes of Italian pasta most popular and passionate, the spaghetti a la puttanesca. You'll see how, without leaving home, you'll be transported to Italy as you cook the sauce. And as soon as you bring the dish to the table and the spaghetti to your mouth, just by closing your eyes you'll feel as if you were eating in one of its restaurants by the sea.
Full of aroma and lots of flavor, to the sauce puttanesca various origins have been attributed to it, ranging from the establishments where it was customarily prepared (mostly brothels) to the possibility of making them with "anything" that could be found in a Neapolitan kitchen after a hard day's work. Whatever the real reason, the fact is that the pasta à la puttanesca is a benchmark in Italian cuisine.
If you make this recipe with Fresh homemade pasta, it will taste heavenly to you all; but it’s not mandatory. Ideally, a long pasta, whether papardelle, fetuccini or Tagliatelle alla Puttanesca. What I do recommend is using the ingredients I've listed in the recipe. You already know I like to adapt recipes with a personal touch. And these spaghetti à la puttanesca are no exception. By adding a bit of celery, we'll give it an extra aroma. And this time we'll swap black olives for Kalamata olives, which, with their intense, deep flavor, round out any dish. Shall we go to Naples?
Ingredients
- 200 g of fresh long pasta, in this case spaghetti*
- 400 g whole peeled tomatoes (natural canned tomatoes)
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 5 anchovies
- Between 10 and 20 g of capers (depending on how much you like them)
- A stalk of celery, roughly chopped
- 50-60 g of pitted Kalamata olives
- Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Chopped fresh parsley
- Salt (if necessary)
- 1-2 chili peppers (optional, if you want to add a spicy touch)
*You can buy fresh or dried pasta. And you can also make it at home; it's not difficult and the result far exceeds store-bought pasta. If you want to try making it at home, here we explain how to make fresh pasta.
Preparation
- Heat up a stainless steel frying pan over medium heat, with a good splash of oil.
- When the oil is hot, add the chopped garlic and let it brown a little, without burning. Add the capers and stir so they release their flavor. If you're going to add chili, add it at this point as well.
- Now it's the anchovies' turn. Put them in the pan and stir them gently, so they dissolve.
- When you see that the anchovies have completely dissolved, add the whole tomatoes and the roughly chopped celery. Stir everything with a spoon or a spatula, while you break up the tomatoes. This way they will start releasing all their juice, as they crumble and reduce.
- Let the mixture cook for about 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally so the tomatoes break down and nothing sticks to the pan.
- While the sauce is reducing, put a pot of water on to heat and, when it boils, add the pasta with a good handful of salt and let it cook until it’s 2 minutes shy of being "al dente".
- When you see the sauce has formed, remove the pieces of celery and add a little freshly ground black pepper. Add the whole Kalamata olives as well and stir well. Taste the sauce to make sure the salt is right and adjust if necessary.
- Remove the pasta from the water two minutes before it is "al dente," reserving a little of the cooking water.
- Put the spaghetti in the pan with the sauce and add a little of the cooking water, stirring quickly so the sauce and pasta mix and all the flavors come together.
- Serve the spaghetti on pasta plates (are suitable for keeping it warm) and sprinkle the chopped fresh parsley on top. Done!
