No Surprises

Today I'm going to show you one of my favorite recipes, with a surprise ingredient:

Don't click away at the thought of anchovies! I promise you will never know they are in this dish. Plus notice that there is some garlicky goodness behind the can. You put some oil in your pan and heat it up and them dump them in and saute them down until you can't even tell they are anchovies anymore. See:


Anchovies? What anchovies? None here! ;) Today we are making Pasta Puttanesca, a recipe my parents used to make all the time. There are lots of variations on ingredients that you can include. Usually I make mine with shrimp and artichokes, but we went with mushrooms and asparagus because that's what we had in our fridge. I love recipes where you can swap out ingredients like this, especially when it saves me a trip to the store!

Ingredients:
1 lb of pasta of your choice (I used penne)
3oz can of anchovies
6 cloves of garlic sliced
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
1 pint of grape tomatoes
1 pint of sliced portabella mushrooms
3 oz jar of capers
6 oz can of sliced black olives
1/2 bunch of asparagus, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
Grated Romano for garnish

Instructions:
Fill a pot with water and a splash or two of olive oil and bring to a boil for pasta. In a large sauce pan heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Add the whole can of anchovies (and oil) to your sauce pan and saute until your anchovies cook down to look like picture above. Throw in your garlic and saute. Add olives and juice, mushrooms, asparagus, tomatoes and wine. Cook covered at a low simmer until vegetables have softened (I like my tomatoes to burst open just a bit). Add capers and pasta to the sauce and mix. Let it sit for a few minutes before serving so flavors can blend, and garnish with cheese.

Yum! This is one of Kraut's favorite dishes, and if you can get past our little surprise ingredient it will soon be one of yours! In honor of today's unexpected ingredient today's song on the soundtrack of life is Radiohead's No Surprises.