This Spaghetti Puttanesca recipe is again from The Sopranos Family Cookbook.  Honestly, I was not impressed when I was dishing this up.  I’ve cooked it before and my version was lighter.  After I took my first bite of this one, all relaxed and away from my kitchen, I was surprised at how different the same dish with the same ingredients could be.  Both are good…just different.

My mother (again!) first told us about Spaghetti Puttanesca when we were kids.  Of course, there’s going to be a related story….families are all about stories, right?  My family especially…

Apparently, this was the dish her second eldest brother, the lawyer in the family, learned from somewhere and introduced to their home.  One day after the war (WW2), he came home with all the ingredients, cooked it for everyone to try.  And of course, he started telling them about its scandalous origins  (which I assume you all know), which, of course shocked his old, widowed mother and his five sisters.  Good thing my grandmother was always a good sport and spoiled her kids rotten, especially after my grandfather was killed during the liberation of Manila.  As a result of that tragic time, Lola Blanca tried harder to be accessible to her children and let the aunts and uncles…especially the uncles…get away with almost anything.  She always remained her loving, laughing self….after an initial, disapproving, “I’m not impressed” kinda look of course.

Years ago, after I got my first job with a restaurant group in Manila…I heard about this dish and completely forgot my mother’s story about it.  I come home with all the ingredients and cooked it and before I was able to tell the story about its origins, my mother beats me to it….

It’s my ideal dish…every ingredient in here, I love…..one of the few things without meat I  have always actually liked…

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. light olive oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

8 pcs. anchovy fillets

1-28 oz. can Italian crushed tomatoes

salt to taste

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 c. black olives, chopped

1/4 c. capers

red pepper flakes, to taste

chopped parsley

1 lb. spaghetti noodles

Start by heating 2 tbsps. olive oil in a pan where the sauce and spaghetti will fit.  On medium-low heat, saute the garlic and anchovies till the garlic is golden, not brown, just golden.  Add the tomatoes, oregano and salt and bring to a boil.  Allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, cook a pound of spaghetti according to package instructions.

Put in the rest of the ingredients into the sauce and cook 2 more minutes.  Throw in the noodles and turn off the heat.  Add a dash or two extra virgin olive oil before serving.

Silver Spoon
Silver Spoon