Eastington @ Paddington

from Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson (p188)

the name is Nigella’s translation of pasta alla puttanesca to English.

The ingredients are basically standard for all puttanesca with the differences being:

• onion or no onion (no onion is better IMHO),
• parsley or basil (I prefer parsley as it does not clash with the heavy salty flavours of the anchovies, capers and olives), and
• chilli or no chilli (no prises for guessing I prefer chilli)

In this instance it was:

• EVOO
• anchovies (the Capriccio and Sole Mare were not available, so I used what I could get)
• garlic
• baby capers (I used salted rather than vinegar)
• black olives (I got the mixed container and picked out the black ones. Fresh olives pack more flavour than those in a jar)
• dried red pepper flakes to taste (mine was to increase it to 1/2Tbs per person)
• spaghetti pasta (I have changed from Barilla to La Molisana which is bronze-drawn which gives it a rougher texture to grip the sauce). Use about 100g per person.
• canned diced tomatoes (Mutti organic chopped)
• parsley to finish

The direction was to “serve it slatternly style, preferably with an untipped cigarette clamped between crimson-painted lips.” I went for one of the three.

I like the contrast of colours on the dark plates.

The best puttanesca is still Heston’s recipe but it takes so long to make. This is quick and good.