$5 Meals: Pasta Puttanesca

This is one of my favorite lazy meals, aided by its relatively low cost. I often see tomatoes in those little $1 manager special bags at the grocery store. When I do, I grab some and toss them in my freezer. Those bags usually have 2-3 pounds in them. I find that putting some frozen tomatoes and a bit of water in a pan to start cooking is a fantastic base for a sauce with the most fantastically minimal amount of work for me humanly possible. That appeals a lot to me, as I imagine it does for many of y’all. So for this, I’ve spent a buck on tomatoes, maybe 25 cents between the spices and garlic, $1.36 on anchovies/oil (this is $1.50-2 in most grocery stores, I’ve noticed), and maybe a dollar’s worth of olives and capers if you don’t have to buy them both just for this. If cans instead of fresh tomatoes, I buy the $0.69 cent cans at Kroger, so that’s $1.38 instead of $1. Total cost for me, based on the above, was $4.61 including a buck for the pound of pasta.

Puttanesca is one of those 30-minute, “omg this day has been too long to be in the kitchen” kind of meals! All you need are a couple of spices, some pasta, fresh or canned tomatoes, a tin of anchovies, a little garlic, plus some olives and capers. It’s not a big deal to leave out anything you don’t care for on this list, and laziness dictates that I frequently am not making a proper puttanesca due to my lack of desire to open cans. If you aren’t the type of person to mix all your sauce into all of your pasta (I go back and forth on this), the sauce also makes a fantastic pizza sauce. Just sayin’.

I was gonna get y’all a better picture, but when I came back to do so, I discovered Ross mid-way through the bowl. He figured I’d left it on the counter so he’d eat it and we’d have fewer leftovers in the fridge and decided to go with second dinner. I appreciate that he was trying to have my back on the leftovers front!

Here’s what you’ll need

8 roma tomatoes (plus about a quarter cup of water) or 1 14-ounce can each of crushed and diced tomatoes

1 tin of anchovies

1/4-1 teaspoon red chile flakes (use as much as you like or omit if you aren’t into spicy stuff)

2 cloves minced garlic, or a spoonful of the jarred stuff

1/4 cup fresh or 1 tablespoon dried parsley, basil, and or oregano

1/4-1/2 cup of olives, sliced or roughly chopped (I usually use kalamata, but sometimes I use canned black or homemade olives; whatever you’ve got will do)

1-2 tablespoons of capers, rinsed and optionally chopped

1 pound of pasta (and salt for cooking water)

Here’s what you’ll do

Put a large pot of water with salt on the stove to boil. While you do that, add the oil from the tin of anchovies and your chile flakes to a medium-sized sauce pan. Heat that over low heat for 10-15 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, you can bump the heat up and do 5-10 minutes. It’s not ideal, but we’ve all gotta do what we’ve gotta do. After the chile flakes have infused in the oil, add your garlic and the anchovies themselves and bump the heat up. Stir for about 1 minute until the anchovies have dissolved into the oil and the garlic is lightly browned. Then, add your tomatoes and water or the cans of tomatoes with their water. If your tomatoes are whole and not canned, you’ll want to smash them with your spoon once they start softening. If your herbs are dried, add them now. Let that simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Your call, really. The longer it cooks, the better the flavor. Sometimes I toss the pot together and let the sauce cook all day; other times, I am down to the wire when I throw this together and wind up shorting the time a bit. Everyone eats it all the same, so it’s fine.

By this point you should be adding your pasta and boiling it to either package directions or your personal preference. I’m a 6-7 minute guy, myself.

Add fresh herbs now if that’s what you’re using, and also go on ahead and add your capers and olives. Simmer another 5 or so minutes. Get your pasta drained, and either mix them together or add your sauce to each bowl of pasta. Serves 4.