Yes, another pasta.
It seems like I'm eating only pasta, recently, and that's pretty much true. It's summer, I'm going out a lot in the evenings and I don't really feel like making complicated dishes, so a plate of pasta is always good, fast and easy.
Yesterday evening it was time for yet another classic, a pasta al sugo di pomodoro con tonno, peperoncino e olive nere.
I have cravings, from time to time. Like everybody else, methinks.
Sometimes it's chocolate, sometimes meat, sometimes a certain type of vegetable. A clear sign that my body needs specific nutrients, I guess.
Recently I have a real craving for canned tuna (preserved in oil, I usually find the one in water too flaky and dry) and so I'm using it in salads with tomato and chickpeas, in sandwiches with basil and self made mayonnaise and of course in pasta dishes like this one, which is easy to make and a classic year-round recipe.
I like it a bit hot - but not too hot - and so I add a couple of dried chili peppers (the tiny, very mean ones from southern Italy). The special note is given by a generous splash of red wine where you probably would expect white, and that gives the sauce a nice, sturdy and slightly unexpected twist, supported by the flavour of the small taggiasche olives used instead of normal black olives.
To make the preparation even faster I use passata di pomodoro (strained crushed tomatoes) instead of peeled tomatoes because this speeds up the whole cooking process a lot.
I like to eat this with long, thick pasta (linguine, bavette, spaghettoni) but short pasta is perfectly OK too.
The music today is from Fiorella Mannoia and Tiziano Ferro.
Oh, a little lingui-ne-stic note for some of my English speaking friends: the right spelling is linguinE and not linguini. ;)
Linguine al sugo di pomodoro con tonno, peperoncino e olive nere
Serves 3-4
300 gr. linguine
500 gr. passata di pomodoro (strained crushed tomatoes)
1 medium-sized onion
1 clove of garlic
200 gr. canned tuna
2-3 dried chili peppers
1 handful of black olives
a big pinch of dried oregano
1/2 dl. red wine
olive oil extra vergine
sea salt
Chop the onion and fry it in olive oil with the crushed chili peppers until soft and golden brown.
Add the garlic clove, the passata di pomodoro, the dried oregano and the olives and let everything cook for at least 10 minutes.
Remove the garlic clove and add the tuna in little chunks and the red wine. Mix well and let the sauce cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add some salt if necessary and mix with the pasta cooked very al dente.
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