Dinner Tonight: Vegetarian Puttanesca

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil

4 roma tomatoes, diced

1 can black olives, coarsely chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 Tbsp Capers, rinced

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp parsley, chopped

Arugula or Spinach for serving

Salt and red pepper flakes, to taste

Romano cheese

Pasta, such as Fettuccine or Spaghetti

Directions:

1. Put a pot of water on to boil.

2. While the water is heating up, chop up tomatoes and olives. Mince garlic or use a garlic press.  Rinse capers. Place all these ingredients in a frying pan along with the olive oil and tomato paste. Turn heat to medium.

3. Cook pasta as directed on package.

4. Let tomato and olive mixture cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until hot and fragrant.

5. Chop up parsley and sprinkle over mixture in frying pan. Add the vinegar, pepper flakes, and salt. 

6. Once pasts is done cooking, drain, and then toss with tomato and olive mixture.

7. Serve over greens and top with Romano cheese.

Tips and facts:

1. There are very few recipes that call for an entire can of tomato paste, so buy tomato paste in a jar, which keeps better!
2. Without the cheese this recipe is vegan!

3. I was looking up traditional puttanesca and apparently the name means "whore's style spaghetti"! How offensive! LOL

4. This dish goes great with white wine or a wine spritzer, like I made: Pour chardonnay and San Pellegrino Limonata over ice. Yum!