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depressioncookingwithphoenix · 5 years

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Puttanesca pasta

hello everyone

THIS IS NOT NECESSARY TO THE RECIPE YOU CAN SKIP TO THE NEXT RED TEXT

idk if i will make a proper first post introducing this blog. it is a cooking blog of sorts. i don’t like doing 19 paragraphs about what inspired the recipe, though. after this first one it’s going to be straight in to the food. it’s a combination “how i make food” “variation on this one specific recipe” (with occasional original recipes) with some bits of advice targeted towards depressed people, of which some will apply to just lazy people too i guess.

i’m trying to present things in a way that will be good for beginner cooks as well, however since i don’t use exact measurements very often it may be too intimidating / vague. i use photos anyway because i like to.

i am not sure that all or even some of these will be suitable for most people’s depression limits; hopefully i will be in a better place soon and it will simply be “college dorm cooking with phoenix” (not my real first name). these are just things i managed to make. usually they come in portion sizes or ways of making them that are suitable for one person, as i live alone, but part of that is that i am happy eating the same thing for at least one meal a day multiple days in a row. that’s all i can think of for now. on to the food.

RECIPE BEGINS HERE

this is what you’ll end up with. tomato sauce with capers and olives. most of the ingredients - and all the ones i used here - can be from the pantry or long term storage in the fridge. you can eat this with parmesan / romano / asiago / something else like that and it’s good. i don’t have any and you don’t need any either. sometimes you haven’t been to the store in a while or just couldn’t / didn’t want to buy the expensive cheese.

ingredients (a lot of these are approximate but i took photos to show how much i used):

6-7 LARGE cloves of garlic, or enough smaller ones to be equivalent

tin of anchovies (the one i used was 2 oz)

crushed red pepper flakes (to taste. i like it spicy)

olive oil (a few tablespoons, about)

kalamata olives (about 1/2 cup i think)

capers (like a tablespoon or two)

penne pasta

28 oz can or two of the smaller cans (don’t remember if they’re 14oz or not) diced tomatoes

large handful of parsley (optional)

salt and black pepper. idk if the black pepper really matters you can try leaving it out if you want and see how it goes

how to!

this is how much garlic i use. smash it and then dice it very small (there’s a photo later on that shows how small)

take all your anchovies out of the tin and chop them up small enough that they’ll “melt” when you cook them. if you’ve cooked with anchovies before you know what that looks like, if you haven’t it’ll be something like this:

put some olive oil in a pot. it can either be a largish saucepan or a stockpot (i think that’s what this is called). it doesn’t really matter. you want enough oil that nothing’s going to burn on the bottom. put the anchovies and garlic in, plus the red pepper flakes. i don’t remember what the original recipe i used had, probably between 1/8 and 1/2 teaspoon. pick something in that range that sounds close to your spice preferences. if you’re a baby cook start small, you can add more later and then try more next time you cook.

i just shake it in til it looks right.

this is where we are now:

i decided after i mixed things up that it wasn’t enough oil for this particular pot so i added some more in the middle there.

START YOUR PASTA WATER NOW. SEE THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PASTA AT THE BOTTOM WHENEVER THE WATER IS HOT. salt the water before you start it boiling. it doesn’t matter but it matters to me.

cook it for a few minutes (maybe up to 10? i have no sense of time. i really thought it was 1 am when i was cooking but as i write it’s 9:46 pm), until the garlic and pepper are getting done ish and the anchovies are melty. i’ll be honest i really didn’t remember what i was doing here i just went for it and when it smelled a little burnt i dumped the tomatoes in and it turned out delicious. this is it a minute before the tomatoes.

put tomatoes in, simmer for a while. 10 minutes or until the pasta is done, whichever is later. pasta should be later. this is the kind of simmer i do. sometimes it’s a little less. stir periodically.

hell yeahhhhhh.

PASTA: so for yourself or two people, just cook as much pasta as you think you need. if for more people, do the whole thing. don’t worry about the extra sauce.

when you drain pasta you want for the water to not rise to the level of the bottom of the strainer. if you have a garbage disposal you can just turn that on and if you have a functional drain you don’t have to worry but sometimes your sink is kind of clogged and drains really slowly and you haven’t been to the store to buy drain cleaner or asked maintenance for help. that’s okay. you just take the large pot thing you’re soaking (or a clean one i guess) and prop your strainer up on that and the counter. boom problem solved.

when your pasta is ready turn off the heat on the sauce and put the olives capers, and parsley in. i didn’t have parsley because i haven’t been to the store in almost two weeks. that’s fine. here’s how much stuff i did have i used:

now you dump your pasta in a bowl, spoon some sauce on, mix it up. it’s possible you made way too much pasta. that’s okay. it’ll keep in the fridge for a day or two and you can work on it later. we’ll go over storage of the food in the next post. in the meantime, enjoy your food

a couple of ending thoughts: try to clean as you go. i know, i know, everyone says that, but if you clean your dishes - or even just rinse or wipe them off so stuff doesn’t dry on - it’ll make life easier later. resist the urge to leave the kitchen every time something doesn’t need tending. wash at least one thing first. also WASH THE CUTTING BOARD AND KNIFE BEFORE THE GARLIC DRIES ON THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT

if you followed along with this post and made pasta even through your disabling mental illness, i am so proud of you. it doesn’t matter what else happened today and how successful you were at cleaning, you had a bunch of ingredients in the pantry and you turned them into delicious food even though it was hard. you did good.

(i know no one will read this, but just in case someone does, i think it’s important you know that.)

#pasta #puttanesca #recipes #tomato sauce

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