Dan’s Inaugural Cooking Attempt – Pasta Puttanesca

So Dan doesn’t cook…or at least he doesn’t unless I force him to.  I do all the cooking in the house, occasionally (and i mean VERY occasionally – maybe once every couple of months), he’ll play sous-chef which basically means stirring the pan occasionally and taking all the credit when it’s finished.

Well tonight it was time for him to go it alone.  Every month we try and organise a date night, taking it in turns every other month to plan an evening out that the other one would enjoy.  As I was taking him to Tarifa last month for his birthday and he’s taking me to Puglia this month for mine, another date night out seemed a bit extravagant so we decided to cook for each other.  Tonight was my turn to be treated.  I gave him an easy but tasty recipe of Pasta Puttanesca and sent it to him that morning so that he could buy the ingredients.

I arrived home with trepidation to find him looking pretty calm in the kitchen having done most of the work already…Obviously incredibly chuffed with himself, he’d done all the shopping, prep-work and the sauce was simmering away on the cooker, ready and waiting – he’d even set the table and decanted nice bottle of wine for us to share.

I spiralized some courgettes for myself, and it was ready to serve…

I have to say I was incredibly impressed, the sauce was rich and salty and (dare I say it) pretty perfect.  One impressed girlfriend here!  The only problem is that now that i know he can do it, he’s going to have to do it more often.  He said that he really enjoyed it though so who knows, maybe I’ll get treated to a home-cooked dinner a bit more often.

So on to the recipe, here’s what he did …

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion to soften it.  Once it’s turned translucent, stir in the anchovies along with a bit of the oil from their tin.  They will break down and start to dissolve into the oil and at that point add the garlic and cook until starting to colour slightly.  Stir in the tomato paste and add the olives, the dried herbs and spices (chilli flakes and oregano) and the tin of tomatoes.  Reduce the heat and simmer the sauce uncovered while you prepare the pasta.

Dan cooked Spaghetti for his and I had my spiralised courgettes that I steamed gently and it was ready to serve with the chopped fresh parsley and some grated parmesan to top it off with.  It made enough for 2 of us to have loads of sauce with a small portion left over so probably serves about 4.

It went perfectly with the Washington Cabernet Sauvignon that he’d bought for me on a recent work trip, which was rich, heavy and full of ripe red fruit flavours.