Seasonal local food recipe No.288 – Delia’s pasta ‘Puttanesca’

In Italian a puttanesca is a “lady of the night” so Delia Smith calls this “tart’s spaghetti”!

Serves 2

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
50g anchovies, drained (optional)
150g pitted black olives, chopped
1 fresh red chilli, de-seeded and chopped
1 heaped tbsp capers, drained
450g tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 rounded tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

225-275 g spaghetti (depending on how hungry you are)

freshly grated parmesan cheese
chopped fresh basil

Method
To make the sauce, heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add the garlic, chilli and basil and cook these until the garlic is pale golden.  Then add all the other sauce ingredients, stir and season with a little pepper.

Turn the heat to low and let the sauce simmer very gently without a lid for 40 minutes, by which time it will have reduced to a lovely thick mass, with very little liquid left.

Cook the spaghetti, timing it to be ready when the sauce is cooked.  Drain the spaghetti, return it to the pan and toss the sauce in it, adding the basil.  Mix thoroughly and serve with lots of grated parmesan to sprinkle over.