Pasta Puttanesca

Level of Difficulty: easy
Pots/Pans Used: 2!

Ingredients

2 TBL olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
10 green olives, chopped
2 TBL capers
14.5 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
whole wheat angel hair pasta
1/2 tsp dried basil (fresh is best if you have it)
season with pepper and/or nutritional yeast

I had a version of Pasta Puttanesca a while back at Sublime restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Aside from the traditional anchovies, it seemed like a fairly easy dish to veganize. Plus, its a good way to spice up your pasta if you're tired of always eating spaghetti with tomato sauce. This recipe has a surprising amount of kick. I did add a couple chilies to it (not sure what kind) so that might account for most of it. Either way, if you hate spice, I recommend leaving the red pepper flakes out. If you love spice, this is the dish for you!



In a large saute pan, heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, olives, capers and red pepper flakes and let them cook a couple minutes for the flavors to combine. I got my olives from the self-serve section of Whole Foods. They were green and kalamata olives mixed with some chilies. So I also chopped up two of the chilies and threw them in for some extra heat. Next, add the entire can of tomatoes (don't need to drain). Add the basil to the sauce and then bring it to a simmer. Meanwhile, prepare your pasta. Since the pasta only takes 3-5 minutes to cook, the sauce should be done by the time your pasta is done. I cooked 1 lb of pasta but only ended up using about half of it because there wasn't enough sauce. So I either recommend doubling the sauce recipe or only cooking half of the box of pasta. Once you have drained the pasta, add it to the sauce and mix well. Season with pepper and nutritional yeast.