Warm sauce

Tonight, due to lack of shopping motivation (it's windy, wet and snowing out there!), we're eating a pantry favorite--pasta putanesca. It's a standby that's warm, filling and made entirely out of stuff in the pantry. No fresh ingredients required.

Here's how I make it, in case you're looking for something to cook tonight.

Kristen's Putanesca

1 can whole Italian (plum) tomatoes
4 or 5 anchovy fillets, chopped
1 teaspoon capers, smashed up a bit
2 tablespoons black olives, sliced or chopped
2 tablespoons green olives, sliced or chopped
minced garlic (as much as you like, the more the better in my opinion!)
1 teaspoon olive oil
red pepper flakes to taste

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the garlic and anchovies. Cook until the anchovies are a soft paste. Drop in the olives and capers then add the tomatoes, squeezing them through your fingers to break them up. (Fun!) Pour in the remaining liquid from the tomato can. Allow to cook until the liquid is reduced, but not too thick. In the classic tradition, the sauce should be the consistency to lightly coat the back of a spoon. Red pepper flakes add some zing--especially important if you didn't use much garlic. Put them in while the liquid is reducing. Sometimes I leave them out. The recipe is very forgivin so you can vary the quantities of just about everything above to suit your tastes.

Serve over pasta of your choice--penne is good, or a nice thick spaghetti. Make enough for me and Tod to be bloated, or for four people to eat normal amounts accompanied with salad and bread. If you have salad and bread in the pantry. ;-)