Pasta Puttanesca

Ingredients for  2  Servings

• 225-275g

  Spaghetti
• -

  A few drops of olive oil
• -

  Salt
• For the Sauce

• 400g

  Tin of chopped tomatoes
• 180g

  Olives, pitted and chopped
• 50g

  Tin of anchovies, drained
• 2

  Garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp

  Olive oil
• 1 tbsp

  Capers
• 1 tbsp

  Tomato purée
• 1 tsp

  Dried basil
• ¼ tsp

  Crushed dried chillies, or chilli powder
• -

  Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• To Garnish

• -

  Fresh basil, chopped
• -

  Parmesan cheese, grated

Approximate Times

• Preparation :

  Less than 10 minutes
• Cooking :

  30 minutes to 1 hour

Method

1. To make the sauce, heat the oil in a medium saucepan, the add the garlic, chilli and basil. Cook these briefly until the garlic is pale gold. The add all the other sauce ingedients, stir and season with a little fresh ground pepper - but no salt yet, because of the anchovies.
2. Turn the heat to low and let the sauce simmer very gently without a lid for 40 minutes, to reduce to a lovely thick mass with very little liquid left.
3. While the sauce is cooking, take your largest saucepan, fill it with at least 1.25 litres of hot water and bring it up to a gentle simmer. Add a few drops of olive oil and a little salt, and then 8 minutes before the sauce is ready, plunge the spaghetti into the water. Stir well to prevent it clogging together, then time it for 8 minutes.
4. After that drain it into a colander, return it to the saucepan quickly, and toss the sauce in it, adding the fresh basil. Mix thoroughly and serve in well-heated bowls, with grated parmesan to sprinkle over.