Pasta Puttanesca

Pasta Puttanesca made in the Anyday Cookware for your microwave

I love pasta. I REALLY love it. Spaghetti and a salad are one of my top five meals but sometimes I need to mix it up. Since I have no kitchen and particularly no dishwasher I’m trying to minimize the number of dishes I have to hand wash. Enter my Anyday cookware and the microwave. Of course, you can make this on the stovetop and it’s super easy but I don’t have one right now!

I cooked all of this in one dish and it took 16 minutes. It was so delicious; briny from the capers and olives, lots of garlic, and spicy from red chili flakes. This was a “fingers-crossed, hope it works, please don’t explode” kind of meal.

Here’s what I did:

In my large, deep Anyday dish I added about 1.5 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, four sliced cloves of garlic, and maybe 1/2 tsp of red chili flakes. If you want it spicier add more! Toss in 4 or 5 anchovy filets (they’d been in the fridge for a bit so I couldn’t quite tell how many 😬), and 8 oz of pasta (I used Banza)

Add 1.75 C of marinara (I used Rao’s but use whatever you want) and 1.5 C of water. Give it a good stir, pop the lid on with the handle up, and place in microwave.

I did 12 minutes on high power stirring three times. Before going in for the last four minutes I added a handful of Kalamata olives and 2 tbsp of capers. I like to splash a little of each of the juice from the jar in the sauce to add a bit more zing.

After you pull it out of the microwave let it sit for at least three minutes, take the lid off, stir, and taste. You may or may not need salt; the capers, olives, and anchovies have quite a lot so if you add it only add 1/4 tsp at a time.

Garnish with a pile of Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley!

If you’re doing this on the stovetop cook pasta separately from the sauce. Cook pasta according to package directions. I make my sauce pretty much the same way. I start by melting the anchovies, red pepper flakes, & garlic in olive oil then add marinara sauce. Let it simmer for at least ten minutes. I like the freshness of the olive & caper brine so I add those in last. Reserve 1/2 C to 1 C of pasta water before straining the pasta. Add cooked pasta to the sauce, add pasta water if needed. Garnish the same way!