SPAGHETTI ALLA PUTTANESCA

Serves 4

Puttanesca is a delicious, robust, red pasta from 20th C. Naples, whose provocative name is of legend only. It must be made with the ripest fresh tomatoes, or the best canned San Marzano pomodori pelati – peeled tomatoes – you can find. Good anchovies and salt-packed capers are also requisite. Drain the anchovies of their oil, and rinse then soak the capers for 15 minutes in cool water to desalinate them properly. Don’t cook the tomatoes too long or the sauce will lose its brightness.

½ cup/120 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ cup/350 g whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
2 cloves/10 g garlic, thinly sliced
6 ea/25 g anchovy fillets
Pinch red pepper flakes
35 g/5 TBL salt packed, well-rinsed capers
½ cup/90 g pitted black olives
½ tsp/1.5 g Kosher salt
12 oz/350 g spaghetti or chitarra pasta
5 TBL/30 g Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
Freshly ground Tellicherry pepper

Add oil to a medium-hot sauté pan. Immediately add pepper flakes, anchovies, and garlic. Stir for a few seconds until garlic turns golden. Add tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Stir olives, capers, and salt into sauce and set aside. Boil pasta in water the saltiness of sea water to al dente, about 8 or 9 minutes. Drain pasta and add to sauce along with three or four tablespoonfuls of pasta water. Twirl pasta in sauce to coat. Twirl pasta and transfer to warm bowls. Sprinkle pasta with grated Pecorino Romano and freshly ground pepper.