It seems only fitting I would break my streak of no cooking by making something notoriously easy to throw together. As the old story goes, puttanesca was a southern Italian dish often made in brothels *gasp!* because it was easy to throw together and could sit around for hours while the ladies were, ahem, occupied doing other things. Many times you’ll see puttanesca served at room temperature because of the tradition, but this version is hot, spicy, briny, and all those wonderful things you get in lots of southern Italian cooking.

I’m home visiting (feeling MUCH better, thank you!) and made this for my mom and best friend for dinner last night and it was just delicious. Dead easy, using mostly pantry staples and a bit of fresh herbs, the whole thing was thrown together while my friend and I got through a bottle of wine and caught up on life. We finished the night with a few truffles from Christopher Elbow (I am home, after all) and more wine and tons of laughter – the perfect meal.

The classiest wine chiller you’ll ever see.

Dessert. Purple: Dark dark chocolate for mom. Orange: grapefruit campari for myself. Yellow & orange square: champagne for Dev.

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Pasta Puttanesca

Based on the recipe from Cooking Light.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 anchovy fillets
• 1½ cups canned crushed tomatoes
• ¾ cup pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
• 1 Tbsp. drained, rinsed capers
• ¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 6 quarts water
• 9 ounces fresh refrigerated fettuccine
• ¼ cup shredded Romano cheese

Directions

1.)  Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add anchovies; mash in pan with a fork to form a paste. Stir in tomatoes, olives, parsley, capers, and red pepper flakes; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2.) Bring 6 quarts water to a boil and salt water well. Add pasta; cook about 3 minutes or until almost al dente. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving ½ cup pasta water. Toss pasta with sauce, adding pasta water as needed to loosen sauce. Top with cheese and serve immediately.

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