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Friday, 27 February
Puttenesca
This is one of Andrea and my favourites! It is named for the prostitutes who needing a good feed to keep their energy up would make it in between clients - thus it became known as pasta of the whore or puttenesca! Traditionally it was made with black olives but I love it with spanish stuffed green. olive oil spaghetti - long noodles The reason the prostitutes liked this meal is that it was very fast to prepare. It takes as long to make as the water to boil and the pasta to cook! Put your water on to boil and salt well - I do not put oil in my water as some people suggest so as to stop the pasta sticking because it will stop the sauce from sticking when it is served in the plate. If you dont want the pasta to stick - stir it!! If you put the water on to boil and then prepare the sauce ingredients, once the water is boiling put in your pasta and cook till aldente. By the time the pasta is ready the sauce will be cooked also. Heat oil in pan, add garlic and chillie and cook for a minute or so. Do not brown garlic. Add the anchovies and stir until melted into the sauce. Add capers and heat through then add olives and heat through. Now add tomatoes and cook the sauce adding torn basil leaves by the handful as you go. I do not add any salt or pepper as there is plenty of flavour in the sauce and certainly enough salt thanks to the anchovies, olives and capers. Add pepper if you wish. It is up to you as to how cooked you want the sauce. You can serve it quite fresh ie more like the ingredients have been thoroughly warmed through or you can cook it down for five or so minutes - your choice so experiment. When pasta is cooked drain but do not rinse (some people do but I am not a rinser!!) then take a spoonful or two of the sauce and mix through the hot noodles and then serve into bowls. Top with lots of yummy sauce and a few left over torn basil leaves. Serve with lots of fresh grated parmesan cheese. As usual I do the measurements of the ingredients by the handful and to my taste so you will have to experiment to gain the right balance for you. The above is really for two as a main meal with a little left over for lunch. I do work to the rule of one large tomato per person when cooking this dish - vine ripened of course!! Comments This is a great recipe! Thanks, Paul, for sharing it. Saw it the other day and printed it out and made it tonight. Yummmm! Skipped the capers though, as I'm not a big fan of those. The kitty was very intrigued by the wonderful smells in the kitchen (probably really the anchovies ...) and the dish got her stamp of approval. Yep, she runs this household. Posted by: Evelyn on March 10, 2004 11:42 AMOkay, here are two favorites of mine. The first a cake and the other a salad: KARDINALTORTE (English) 125 g /5 oz. butter 3 egg whites 2 cans cherries in juice (sour ones are better, if you can find them and not the pie filling) drain the juice, but keep it; soak the cherries in plenty of rum for several hours 400 ml (a little less than 1 pint) heavy whipping cream grated chocolate (the dark, bitter kind; if you don’t feel like grating the chocolate, you can also use cocoa and use a sieve while sprinkling it over the cake)
Whip the egg whites until they are stiff and then mix in the flour with a fork and carefully blend the egg whites to the cake mixture. Bake in a spring form (29 cm / 11.5 inch diameter) at 150?C // 300 ? F for 45 minutes. Let the cake cool completely before taking it out of the form. Actually, you might want to keep it in there and let the next layer of the cake cool and set in the form. Drain the cherries, but keep their juice in a separate bowl and soak the cherries in rum for several hours, if you have the time, if not 30 minutes will do it as well. Mix the juice, the cherries and the rum and the vanilla pudding mixture in saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. If you are in the US, make sure you get the vanilla pudding mixture that you have to cook, as the non-cook kind does not thicken the mixture enough. Although, even the cooked vanilla pudding mixture at times doesn’t thicken the mixture enough, in which case you should add a little bit of corn starch to the mixture, but take it easy on the corn starch, you don’t to ruin the flavor of the cherry mixture with too much corn starch. Add the cherry mixture on top of the cake and let it set and cool. Whip the cream with a little bit of vanilla sugar (or no sugar at all) and either cover the entire cake with the cream or just add another layer on top. You could even get fancy and decorate your cake with some cream if you feel like. In the end sprinkle the grated chocolate over your cake. Decorating tips: keep 12 – 16 cherries (depending on how many slices of cake you want to have) and some of the whipped cream. Before decorating, cover the cake with the chocolate and then decorate each slice of cake with a little whipped cream rosette and place a cherry on top. Makes a nice color contrast. This is what they typically do on a Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (Black Forrest Cherry Cake) back home, a cake which is kind of similar to this one, but a lot more work, believe me, I’ve made both and the Schwarzwälderkirschtorte really depends on the real kind of Kirschwasser or cherry liquor which I have yet to find in the US. What they sell as Kirschwasser here, I can only say “VERY BIG YUKKK!!!!” It almost ruined the cake … Oh, and don’t forget to enjoy your cake once it’s done! Best shared with loved ones and/or friends. ORIENTAL CHICKEN SALAD This is a favorite of my friend Erika who made this salad twice now at her wonderful dinner parties. It's a favorite of mine as well. 1 lb chicken 1 napa cabbage 1/2 bottle of Girard's salad dressing: oriental chicken salad Stir fry the chicken in the sesame oil and soy sauce. Then chop the napa cabbage, the peppers and green onions and break up the ramen noodles. Mix with the remainder of the ingredients and toss the salad with the dressing. Serves 8 people. Maybe I'll share more of my recipes with you, although, you could just take a look at them online, since I post them on my website, that is when I remember to write them down. :) Just in case you are interested... Do you know where I can find other recipes for the puttenesca sauce? My dad made this when I was a little boy, and he favored the green olives too. I think the one he used had ground beef too and I remember him simmering it all day long... Posted by: lee on October 15, 2004 08:30 AMLee, sorry to take so long to get back to you but I dont check this section that often. I am sure if you did (probably have already done)a google search you will find plenty of versions. As far as I know it was originally made with black olives and did not have meat in it. Posted by: Paul on November 11, 2004 05:24 AM Post a comment |
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