Pasta Puscanetta

My friends were so impressed with my pasta sauce that I made on Valentine's Day that I had several requests for the recipe. I will say that it is one of the easiest Italian dishes I have ever made, and definitely a quick and delicious sauce.

To make the sauce you will need the following:

• 8 vine riped tomatoes, chopped
• 5 anchovies, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp. tomato-basil paste 
• 25 Greek olives (pitted), coarsely chopped
• 3 tbsp. capers 
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper, to taste

The preparation for the sauce took about 20 minutes, and the cooking time is approximately 20 minutes for a total of 40 minutes.

To prepare the sauce you need to:

1. Saute minced garlic in a saucepan with olive oil on medium-low heat until the garlic is golden-brown in color.
2. In a food processor, combine chopped tomatoes with anchovies and pulse until you have a "coarse" sauce. (You want to texture to your sauce, rather than something that looks like a smoothie.)
3. Combine tomato-anchovy sauce into saucepan with garlic and reduce to low heat. Cook for approximately 10 minutes, stirring occassionally.
4. Add olives, capers, and crushed red pepper to the sauce. Cook for another 10 minutes on low heat making sure to stir occassionally.
5. Spoon sauce over cooked pasta of your choice. (You will need about half the regular amount of sauce as you would need if you used marinara sauce). 

I paired my pasta dish with a mixed green salad with homemade salad dressing (dark cherry balsamic vinegar and olive oil). Of course the dish made an ever better accompaniment to the dessert my friend brought to dinner: tiramisu from Corbo's Bakery in Little Italy.

Side Note: I will mention that Pasta Puscanetta is Italian for "pasta of the whore" and it was a southern Italian dish invited sometime in the mid-20th century. Depending on who you talk to, it was made by Sandro Petti, a famous restauranteur in Italy in 1950's, for late night guests who were hungry. When he informed his guests that he was low on ingredients he customers replied, "Facci una puttanata qualsiasi". Which translates to, "Any kind of garbage will do." The word puttanata (worthless/garbage) is derived from the word puttana which means "whore". Other stories, claim the pasta was a quick dish made for whores in the red light district who were hungry between customers, and therefore is how it got it named. Either way, "whore's pasta" is a nice way to celebrate Valentine's Day, non credi?