Thursday 15 September 2011

My obvious choice of dish using olives : Linguine Puttanesca

I have been wanting to write this blog entry for some time but with everyday life, commitments and holidays  taking over, time has elapsed and we are already in mid September! As a courtesy to my sponsors of Food Blogger Connect, Olives from Spain, I wanted to write up a favourite recipe using their lovely black olives. For me it was an obvious choice; Linguine Puttanesca. Okay, I know it's of Italian origin rather than Spanish, but it was a dish I simply could not resist making. This recipe however, will divide the masses, with ingredients such as olives, capers and anchovies, you will either love it or hate it! I sit firmly in the "love it" camp!

Linguine Puttanesca

Time:
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 17 minutes

Portion Control:
2 generous portions


Ingredients:
200g of cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
250g of  dried linguine
150g of black olives pitted and cut into quarters
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tin of anchovy fillets (8 fillet tin)
3 tbsp of capers, rinsed
1 red chilli, de-seeded and thinly sliced
1 large garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp of olive oil
Salt and pepper for seasoning
2 basil leaves, shredded

Directions:
  • Put the linguine into boiling salted water and cook according to packet instructions.
  • Meanwhile, add the olive oil to a frying pan along with the chopped onion and chilli and cook for a couple of minutes.
  • Then add the anchovies and the crushed garlic to the frying pan and cook for a further minute. The anchovy fillets should start to break up and melt.
  • Add the olives, capers and tomatoes to the pan and turn up the heat. Cook until the onions are soft.
  • When you are happy that the linguine has been sufficiently cooked, rinse the pasta reserving a couple of tablespoons of water to add to the sauce.
  • Pour the pasta to the frying pan, along with the water and toss all the ingredients together. The sauce should have a silky texture and should coat every strand of pasta.
  • Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper accordingly. Remember anchovy and capers will already be heavily salted.
  • Serve into two bowls and garnish with some shredded basil.
Buon Appetito!

Of course, you can always use Spaghetti instead of Linguine, I just prefer the shape of this pasta and it's ability to absorb more sauce. My thanks again to Kirsty and Olives from Spain for my weekend conference pass and for those lipsmacking delicious olives.

8 comments:

  1. That looks VERY tasty and has all of my favourite ingredients in it too! I missed the FBC this year, but will be along next year for sure!
    Karen @ Lavender and Lovage

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  2. apparently (from last night's olives from spain event) olives with anchovies are the top mix in spain, but the least favourite in the UK!

    Looks good - hope you had a great time in Paris;)

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  3. Yum! That looks so good! I love how fresh it is....I could eat some right now! : )

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  4. Karen - thanks for stopping by. You will love FBC! Be sure to go next year and meet up with like minded foodies! Just popped over to your blog. It is lovely - can't believe I haven't seen it before - will visit it more often ;-)
    Fiona - thanks for the comment. Hope you had fun at the olive event. I'm not really surprised at the finding - olives and anchovies can be very divisive!
    Lynds - thanks for the comment. Coming from you - I'll take that as a compliment ;-) It didn't last too long on the plate I can tell you!

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  5. In my opinion olives and anchovies go perfectly well! But of course I don't really understand the British taste, I would probably go bankrupt if I try to open a restaurant here :D
    Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe!

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  6. Thanks for dropping by Sneige. I love anchovies and olives too but I think they are often an acquired taste. I love the way the anchovies melt in the pan to give way to a rich salty sauce.

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  7. I love anchovies - I can't get enough of them at the moment. I've seen so many anchovy recipes on blogs tonight so maybe they're on trend or something (she hopes)?!

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  8. Hopefully you'll be able to recreate some great recipes Hannah. Thanks for dropping by ;-)

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