Quick Sauce of Capers, Anchovies, and Tomato

Another economically friendly dinner item! This is why I love real Italian cooking. You have the choice to go complicated, but if you’re feeling short on time and cash just find some pasta, pick a shape, figure out what’s left in the fridge, and work it out!

Sauces can be as simple as olive oil, garlic, and parsley; or butter and fresh sage. Often I will buy fresh herbs at the market and freeze the stuff I don’t use for later use. It may not be as fragrant but it still gets the job done. Waste not, want not recession fighters! Per my “mentor and best friend”, Lydia Bastianich:

About ½ cup Capers

Roughly 1 lb Tomato (about 2 or 3)

5 Garlic cloves or more to taste

Packed Anchovy filets (recipe says 3, I say the whole damn tin *wink*)

Olive Oil ½ cup

Red Pepper Flakes ½ to 1tsp

Salt and Pepper to taste

Note: Mrs. Bastianich is a chef and master cook, while Brandy is simply just a food lover. She says that you can boil your pasta and make your sauce at the same time but she forgets that she is a whiz and that I am clumsier than her so! I suggest you try doing them separate until you can figure out the art of the juggle…

So, I’ve made this dish twice now but I did each different ways, partially because I wasn’t paying attention but it gave me some perspective to share…. Hope this doesn’t get confusing…

The first time I did this I followed the instructions completely… it says to start by putting a pot of salted water to boil.

Then start coring the tomatoes, putting everything (extracted cores with seeds) in a fine sieve to mash the juices out of the tomato halves seeds and all… the second time around I just started coring and chopping the tomatoes along with my garlic, and anchovies because I wasn’t paying attention, haha big surprise!

According to the recipe, after extracting juices set it aside and chop up the tomato. Put the chopped garlic in the pan with your olive oil and let it get fragrant (about a minute). Then add the anchovy pieces, letting them sizzle (another minute), push everything aside and find a clear hot spot to toast your red pepper flakes (another minute), now the capers in its own spot in the pan (another minute!, maybe two)---- make sure that nothing burns; so don’t turn up the fire keep it low and steady, and stir keeping them separated in little piles.

The first time I made this dish I decided I wanted to chop up my capers… I would say after both tries, leaving them whole the second time, that the difference between the two would have to be whether you wanted to bite into a caper v.s. having a more creamy texture and with caper flavor. I think I prefer chopping them up.

Now, stir it all together!

Water in the pasta pot should be boiling by now. At this point ladle in 2 cups of the pasta water and bring it up to a steady perking boil, you should be at about ¼ of an inch in depth.

Put in your chopped tomato, and juice, and bring to a boil.

Here is where she says to start the pasta going but if you’re like me and would rather not risk the chance of over cooking the pasta, you can cook it separately first and reserve the pasta water for the sauce. You want to take about 2 minutes off of the cooking time; Undercook it.

In a lot of her recipes she will do this all at the same time A) because she’s a pro! and B) to cut down on time. I don’t really find it super necessary. The pasta only cooks for somewhere around half the time in the separated pasta pot and is then transferred into the sauce at this time while the sauce is cooking down so you have to make sure you are comfortable with how soupy your sauce is at the time you add your pasta, and how soupy it will or wont be in roughly the rest of time it takes to get your pasta to the desired softness; without over cooking it!

I’d say just (Under cook) your pasta ahead of time, save your pasta water, cook your sauce down to your liking, and THEN add your pasta to the sauce because you won’t still be attempting to cook down the sauce while monitoring the cooking pasta. No body wants to eat mush! Even if you shave off a minute or two to a pasta that only takes 6 minutes in the pot, after transferring it to hot sauce that’s OFF the fire, it will still cook from residual heat.

This time around I forgot to sieve the tomatoes so I just decided to mash them while the sauce cooked. Same result. The other difference was that the first time I made this I used Rotini because that’s what I had. The recipe calls for Capellini or any other long pasta. So I tried Linguine this time around. I have to say I think I like the short grabby pasta better.  Ever wondered why they make so many shapes out of the same food. That’s why!!!!!! (thank you for that fancy bit of unknown information Boyfriend) It really does make a difference.

When the sauce is done and every thing is combined add another 2 tablespoons of olive oil for a more gooey deliciousness… I think the rotini adds to that smacky goodness personally. But maybe that’s just me. Mmmmmmmm……