Obviously, I am going to bake a salad
Lucky me for having friends! I needed help fixing a ruined, wooden cabinet door. What do friends get in return for repairing my stuff - something dished up, of course. So, my buddy, armed with a screwdriver, level, screws and glue, asked if I could make the baked salad again.
Baked salad?! Under no circumstances have I ever committed such a crime! Putting a bowl of fresh, tender, green lettuce into a hot oven...
But he insisted: I put olives and tomatoes and something in a baking dish. And spaghetti. And wine! I would add wine in the end! Okay, that sounds like me but I still had no idea what I must have cooked him once.
But I had no chance in court. He meant a meal that I had once made for him quickly with what I just had in stock then - guilty as charged. I had (in his opinion) baked a salad. With wine and spaghetti. Oh dear!
And I should make that for him again, because: he thought it was really delicious. Well then, lets get to work and put puttanesca on the table.
The recipe for Pasta Puttanesca originates from southern Italy. Usually, anchovy fillets, capers, garlic and chili are roasted in olive oil, then tomatoes - fresh or canned - and olives are added. There must certainly be an infinite number of additional ingredients and various versions. Mine is baked in the oven.
Serves 2
Preheat oven to 200 degrees / 180 degrees convection
Fill a casserole with:
250 g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp black olives (without pits)
4 pickled artichoke hearts, quartered
4 spring onions, cut into rings
1 tsp capers
4 anchovy fillets in oil, cut into small pieces
4 pickled green peppers, cut into small rings or strips
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
Salt, pepper, 2 pinches of sugar
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried oregano
6 tbsp olive oil
Mix everything together (like a salad!)
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes
Cook 250g of spaghetti in salted water, drain 2 minutes before the end of cooking time - before draining them, reserve a coffee mug full of cooking water.
Put the contents of the casserole dish into the hot pasta pot and add 1 glass of white wine - reduce wine for three to four minutes. Add the spaghetti and some of the reserved pasta water - the pasta will finish cooking.
Stir in grated Parmesan, about 3 tablespoons, and arrange the spaghetti with more grated cheese on two plates.
Enjoy!