Weeknight Dinner: Pasta Puttanesca

How busy the winter holidays are for those who celebrate them! Holiday warriors glitter their own greeting cards, bake gingerbread, pomander oranges, force amaryllis and narcissus, sew stockings in anticipation of filling them. As busy as the holidays can get, nothing is as nice as turning on the holiday lights and drawing unto ourselves for an evening. Yes, there are parcels to pack, cards to address, clothes to press for holiday parties, but we won't have the energy to enjoy the holidays, let alone keep sacred their deeper meaning, if we don't set aside time to replenish our spirits.

This month's weeknight dinner is meant for just that purpose. Pasta is the go-to for a simple dinner during a quiet evening at home. We mix pasta with roasted peppers and sausage for a hearty main course. We toss pasta with asparagus and leeks or chicken and mushrooms for soul-nourishing meals for one. We bake pasta under a blanket of cheese for a special occasion -- in the case of baked rigaboni, make that a shroud of cheese. As noted when we set up the home pantry, we keep a jar of dried pasta odds and ends to cook in chicken stock and toss with Parmesan for a simple lunch.

December's pasta dinner is as simple as December's to-do list is lengthy: pasta puttanesca. Puttanesca is easy to assemble from pantry ingredients: dried pasta, canned tomatoes, onions, capers, olives, and anchovies. Puttanesca originated as cheap food for hungry citizens of the street, which perhaps accounts for why it is so satisfying. My version is a little more robust than usual by amping up the volume on the Mediterranean seaside flavors of anchovies, olives and onions. I mix my puttanesca into a big bowl of penne, but it would be satisfying served with farfalle, spaghetti, or a whole wheat pasta. Serve your puttanesca with a lively arugula salad or classic insalata mista. Pair it with one of the spritely reds, such as the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, discussed in the previous column.

Pasta Puttanesca

All of these ingredients are staples in our urban pantry; for the full list, click here. Use large capers if you can obtain them; they have a more robust flavor. Most supermarkets have salad- or olive bars that stock oil-cured olives; get the pitted kind if they're available. This recipe serves four, or two with leftovers. If you have extra pasta without sauce, make pasta salad.

1 small white onion

4 medium cloves garlic

1 small tin or jar anchovies

1 3-ounce jar capers

8 ounces oil-cured black olives

1 28-ounce can crushed San Marzano tomatoes

1/2 cup dry red wine

Extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

1 box dried pasta, such as penne, farfalle, or spaghetti

Grated fresh Parmesan, for serving

Make the Sauce

1. If the olives aren't pitted, gently pinch through each olive to remove and discard the pit. Roughly chop pitted olives to equal approximately 3/4 cup.
2. Peel the onion and remove the root and stem ends. Place the onion on a clean cutting board reserved for vegetables. Halve the onion from root to stem; halve each half. Cut each quarter into thin crescents. Cut across the crescents to form dice. Measure 3/4 cup diced onion into a large mixing bowl.
3. Place a large sauté pan on the stove top and drizzle the pan with an eight-count of extra virgin olive oil. Add the diced onion to the pan.
4. Peel and halve the garlic, discarding any sprouting from the center of the clove. Press the cloves into the sauté pan containing the onion and the olive oil.
5. Add the hot red pepper flakes to the pan containing the garlic, onion and olive oil. Turn the burner to medium and gently sauté the ingredients, occasionally stirring with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula, until the onion is translucent and the garlic has blonded.
6. While the pan ingredients are sautéeing, separate the anchovies. They may tear; that is okay. Gently rub your finger across the anchovies to remove any pinbones or other matter from them. Roughly chop the anchovies to equal about 1-1/2 tablespoons, which should be most of the tin/jar.
7. Add the anchovies to the pan. Lightly stir the sauté to break up the anchovies and incorporate them into the mix. The mixture should be getting very fragrant.
8. Add the olives to the pan. Lightly stir the sauté to incorporate all of the ingredients. Turn burner heat to medium-low.
9. Open the jar of capers and pour the contents in a mesh sieve. Rinse the capers quickly under cool water. Add the capers to the pan. Lightly stir the sauté to incorporate all of the ingredients.
10. Open the can of tomatoes and gently add the tomatoes to the sauté pan. Add the wine to the tomato can, and swirl the can to mix the wine with the tomatoes and sauce remaining in the can. Add the wine-tomato mixture to the sauté pan.
11. Add the dried herbs and several grindings of fresh black pepper to the mixture in the sauté pan. Stir all of the ingredients together.
12. Cover the sauté pan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened slightly and is very fragrant, approximately ten minutes.

Make the pasta

1. Fill a large pot 3/4 with cold water. Add a generous pour of salt to the water. Place the pan on the burner, cover the pan, and turn the heat to high.
2. Once the water is boiling hard, safely remove the cover from the pan and gently add the dried pasta to the boiling water. The water will boil and foam when the pasta is added, but that will subside.
3. Boil the pasta until al dente as directed in the instructions on the box, typically 10-12 minutes.
4. Carefully drain the pasta, tossing gently to express all of the water.

Serve the puttanesca

• Divide the pasta among large serving bowls. Top each with a generous serving of sauce. Serve immediately with grated Parmesan.