Puttanesca Recipe (Not Really)
Not Really Puttanesca
For starters, I would like to stress that this recipe is NOT a recipe for puttanesca. Pasta puttanesca is a classic Italian dish that is tangy and incredibly salty with anchovies, capers, and olives, all three which do not exist in this dish, but if you want, can be added. So if you were expecting the Italian "whore's style pasta", don't bother reading the rest of this. Actually, this is would be what many people consider a kitchen experiment that vaguely resembles puttanesca but tastes pretty good. Okay, I'll be honest. I had no idea what to make for dinner one day, so I managed to produce some pasta dish that I don't know what to call, but it reminds me of puttanesca. Of course, I can't claim my dish to be the traditional Italian dish, but I can say it's a decent variation. Well, it's up to you to test this recipe out and judge for yourself.
**Note: For those who don't know, in the traditional Italian puttanesca, the main ingredients include: garlic, onions, olive oil, anchovies, capers, olives, chili peppers, tomatoes, salt, oregano, pasta, and parsley. Of those ingredients, I managed to use roughly 58% of them, I decided that my creation is a loose variation of puttanesca.**
Ingredients
- 1 can of tuna, preferably in oil
- 2 bell peppers (any color), diced
- Olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 200 g of spaghetti, cooked
- Salt to taste
- Feta (optional)
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 1 tsp of oregano
- Heat up olive oil in a sauce pan. Once hot add garlic. Cook garlic for 1-2 minutes, be careful not to burn garlic.
- Add diced onion and peppers to the pan and cook till onions are translucent and peppers are soft, but not completely mushy. Add tomato and lower the heat.
- Stir and add salt and oregano. Mix well and finally add the can of tuna(including the oil). Break up the pieces of tuna so there are no uneven chunks. Cook for five minutes and remove from heat.
- Add sauce to strained and cooked pasta, incorporate well. Serve warm with chunks of feta crumbled on top. Bon appetit!
