Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Winter is a time when I find it extremely easy to stay at home, eat comfort food and invariable put on weight.  By the time summer comes around I have to work really hard to try and reverse things.  Recently I made a decision to try and avoid that cycle this year and eat a little healthier throughout the colder months.  G is on board also, so we can keep each other on track. 🙂

To achieve this, food must be satisfying in addition to tasting good.   It must also be fairly quick and easy so that it is something we can prepare after work.  Over the past few days I’ve trawled through a couple of my cookbooks and marked a few recipes that may be possibilities. 

Generally speaking, many years of previously being a vegetarian means that I can take or leave a meal that includes meat whereas G is a meat lover.  So normally if I suggest we have something that doesn’t include his beloved ingredient G is none too happy, however, when I described this dish he said “Yum, when are we having it?”  So you can imagine my excitement and desire to make this very soon. 

spaghetti alla puttanesca – (recipe by Jill Dupleix – adapted by Fiona at Food 4 Thought)
serves 4 for lunch

My tips/alterations:  *I added an extra 2 anchovy fillets because we love them.  *I didn’t have a can of cherry tomatoes so I used 300g of fresh cherry tomatoes and 200ml of tomato passata (crushed tomatoes) that I had made some time ago.  *I also didn’t have any oregano so I used its cousin, marjoram.  

ease: 9/10.  
prep time: 15mins.  Rolling the mixture into balls takes most of this.
cooking time: 10mins.
total: 25mins.          

taste: 8/10.   Some simple dishes are just as good as those with complex flavours and this dish is a good example of that.  It was clean on the palate yet flavoursome and allowed us to taste each ingredient within it.  G rated this 7/10, not too bad coming from my little carnivore. 🙂

would I make it again:  Yes.  Something that tastes as good as this did in less than 30 minutes is definitely to be repeated.

Spaghetti alla puttanesca – Recipe from Cuisine.com.au