Spaghetti is so Americana it has made it into cans. Its one of the very easiest, most versatile dinners one can put together and the grocery store shelves prove it. At my local store there is one aisle dedicated to “International” which covers Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, English, Jewish, Cajun (isn’t that from this nation?) and “Latino”. Skip an aisle over and the entire aisle is pasta and sauce.
Pasta is as easy as boiling water and opening a jar. The problem is that it tastes like it. Convenience always comes at a price and if the price isn’t cash, its quality. You can spend an exorbitant amount on really good quality pasta and sauce and make a decent meal. Or you can drop noodles and Ragu on plate for a buck.
Restaurant vs homemade
I’m here to tell you that with just a little extra work you can make sauce that will blow away the local “Italian” restaurant for the same ballpark figure as a box of Barilla and jar of Prego. Once you learn how to make sauce, you’ll never want to go back. It takes so little time, you can often do it in the time it takes to boil your favorite noodles.
So lets explore this.
For dinner tonight I fancy having spaghetti a la puttanesca/amatriciana mash up. If that sounds like an item you’d see on a menu for $20 a plate, its because you probably have seen just that. At a local restaurant here a seafood puttanesca goes for $41 and basic bolognese for $26! Let’s see if we can do this for $5. Now there is a whole debated history about the origins of pasta puttanesca and I encourage you to dig into that because its pretty fascinating, but lets stay on track. Puttanesca is simple, easy, and intensely flavorful and that’s why its now a staple.
Mise en place
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases I only recommend products I trust, and using these links helps support my blog. You’re under no obligation to use them, but if you do, thank you for your support.
First of all lets get our mise en place together. Mise en place is just French for “everything in its place”. In other words, tools and ingredients. Before starting anything, you gotta get your “mise en place”. Today that means:
- A large pot for cooking the pasta. I like my 3-quart all clad sauce pan if I’m just cooking for myself
- A smaller pot to build the sauce. For this I use a 1.5 qt All Clad sauce pan. It’s literally my favorite pan
- Cutting board
- A SHARP knife with a comfortable handle
- A wooden spoon
- And all the ingredients listed in the recipe
The ingredients can change because what I’m sharing here is a technique. Once you master this you’ll be able to substitute ingredients or explore new sauces without a recipe with the confidence of knowing what you’re doing!
Technique
Fat
First thing I’m gonna do is add fat to the pan. I can do that in a multitude of ways. A lot of people insist on using olive oil and it definitely can be used here. Just don’t use extra virgin. Side bar: You’re killing the oil and dropping a ton of money for it. Extra virgin oils are for eating raw. That’s it. The subtle amazing flavors that you’re buying when you drop $15-$20 a quart are destroyed by the high heat of cooking.
Fat = flavor
Ok, I’m back. Where was I? Oh yeah, fat. Fat is glorious and good and packs a ton of flavor. For this dish you can use vegetable oil, grapeseed oil, or pomice olive oil, but I’m going to go a step further and render off some bacon. The crispy bacon bits will add a lovely texture and flavor to the sauce and the rendered bacon fat will create an intense depth of flavor for the final sauce. Traditional recipes call for guanciale. Guanciale is cured meat from the pork jowl or cheek. Its beautiful with its striations of meat and fat…almost exactly like good quality bacon. So that’s what I’m gonna use instead. Guanciale isn’t usually smoked like bacon either, but I absolutely love the subtle smoky quality that it lends the final dish.
So here we go! I’m taking a couple strips of thick cut high quality bacon and I’m dicing it and tossing into my cold pan over medium low heat. That low heat will melt the fatty bits off the bacon and give me a few tablespoons of fat that I’ll use to sweat the aromatics. Rendering the bacon into crispy bits and delicious melted fat is gonna take a 15 to 20 minutes so while that’s going, I’m going to leave it alone and work on prepping up the rest of the ingredients.
At this point its time to put that pot on to boil. I don’t add salt to the water in this particular recipe because there is so much in the sauce ingredients it gets overwhelming really quickly. As soon as the water boils toss in the pasta and we’ll move on to finishing up the sauce!
Aromatics
Speaking of aromatics that brings us to our next step! Once the bacon is crispy and the whole camper smells of goodness, I’m gonna scoop the bits out into a small bowl and leave all the fat in the pan. To that I’m adding my chili flakes, my onion, my garlic, and my capers. And I’m gonna let those cook slowly to release their flavors. After a few minutes I’m tossing in the anchovies and cooking them until they melt away. This is a now a good base for a sauce.
At this point I’m just going to add my tomato, olives, and some black pepper. I stay away from salt during this whole build because almost everything going in is heavily cured and salted. Its really easy to over do it. If the pasta hasn’t finished by now just let that sauce simmer. If it cooks down too long and becomes thick, a little pasta water will bring it right back.
Finishing up
Once I drain the pasta I toss it right back in the pot, pour my sauce in with it and toss it till the noodles are evenly coated. All that’s left is to plate it up, pour a glass of wine, and kick back enjoying a fabulous meal you made in about half an hour in the confines of your camper kitchen. Build a salad with my balsamic vinaigrette to put some green on that plate.