Dish of the Week - Nigella's Slut's Spaghetti (Pasta Puttanesca)

Image from grubdaily.com

For a quick, tasty and cheap mid-week supper look no further than Nigella's Slut's Spaghetti. This dish is packed with flavour and so easy to make - it's just what you want from a mid-week dinner. I didn't change anything with this recipe but I don't advise you use any more anchovies than suggested otherwise it gets pretty salty. Also I would use linguine or tagliatelle - no reason to be limited to spaghetti! Any anchovy haters out there - I promise it doesn't taste like anchovy! I hate them but I adore this dish.

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 8 anchovies (drained and finely chopped)

• 2 cloves garlic (peeled and finely sliced, crushed or grated

• ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (or 30ml pickled red jalapeno chilli peppers, drained, sliced and diced)

• 500 grams spaghetti

• 1 x 400 grams can chopped tomatoes

• 150 grams (drained weight) pitted black olives (chopped a bit)

• 2 tablespoons small capers (rinsed and drained)

• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (to serve - optional)

• salt (to taste)

• pepper (to taste)

1. Put water for pasta on to boil, though you don’t need to get started on the sauce until it is pretty well boiling.
2. Pour the oil into a wide, shallowish frying pan, casserole or wok, and put on a medium heat.
3. Add the finely chopped anchovies and cook for about 3 minutes, pressing and pushing with a wooden spoon, until the anchovies have almost “melted”, then add the garlic and chilli flakes (or sliced then diced jalapeños) and cook, stirring for another minute.
4. This is probably the stage at which you will want to be salting the boiling pasta water and adding the spaghetti to cook according to packet instructions.
5. Going back to the sauce, add the tomatoes, olives and capers and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and again, by which time it will have thicken slightly. Taste for seasoning.
6. Just before the pasta is ready, remove about an espresso cupful of cooking water, and reserve it. When the pasta is cooked as desired, drain and add the spaghetti to the sauce in your wok or pan, adding a little reserved pasta water, if needed, to help amalgamate the sauce. Scatter with chopped parsley, if there's some to hand, and serve in slatternly style, preferably with an untipped cigarette clamped between crimson-painted lips. 

Recipe from Nigella's website