Spaghetti Puttanesca

Angel Blogger here.

Tonight I have some friends coming over to take part in our first Reiki share. They were attuned to Reiki 1 just over a month ago, it will be lovely to see them all again & share their thoughts on how the first month has gone. Today was going to be busy so I decided to simplify what we would have to eat. I always look to make things tasty, if possible look nice, & when busy take as little time as possible to prepare. I love pasta dishes, my mother is from Italian extract & my life has revolved around Italian & Mediterranean food. When we moved to France it was a very easy progression to incorporate French food along with my Italian. The dish I decided to cook was Spaghetti Puttanesca, a family favourite. We were lucky enough to live in Italy for 9 months & travelling around the different regions was amazing. This pasta dish is supposed to be from Naples & translates as "Whore pasta or prostitute pasta", the reason being its quick & easy to prepare between clients!

In a medium size saucepan pour in a good glug of olive oil, add 2 chopped garlic a chopped chilli red or green, some fresh basil, cook for 5 minutes. Add 5-10 anchovy fillets, 12 black olives stoned, 2 teaspoons capers, watch the anchovies simply melt away & make the sauce lovely & salty but not fishy. Add 5 medium chopped tomatoes or a tin of tomatoes. 1 tablespoon tomato purée. Simmer for 40 minutes allowing the flavours to penetrate each other. Cook some thin pasta in salty water. When its ready drain reserving a ladle of the starchy water, add to the sauce to thin it a little. Grate over some fresh parmesan cheese & there you have a very tasty but quick meal. Its even nicer the next day.