Puttanesca inspired pasta with sausage

Well, I'm back! I got a chance to cook tonight and I decided to make a puttanesca inspired pasta dish. I wrote the recipe last night, however it did get changed a little as I was cooking. :) This recipe can feed 6-8 people.

-1 lb loose Italian sausage (any heat level you like)
-1 lb short cut pasta (I like pasta with lines, it holds the sauce better)
-1 small can of tomato paste
-1 TBS anchovy paste (just eyeball it. I found this near the canned tuna.)
-1 large shallot, finely chopped (this is found near the garlic bulbs and has a garlicky-oniony tasty to it)
-1 to 2 cloves of garlic (optional, fresh garlic gives me a stomach ache, but if you like it, go ahead and use it)
-1/2 cup of chopped pitted Kalamata olives (these olives taste like a Spanish Green Olives, but they are black)
-a handful of capers (you can find them near the olives and they look like small, dark green peas. They are salty and taste similar to an olive.)
-1 small lemon
-1/2 of shredded parmesan (please, please, PLEASE don't use the Kraft Parmesan. Get the real stuff. :) There really is a difference in taste.)
-7 or 8 large sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped (look for them in the produce section, near the fresh tomatoes)
-6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
-6 large leaves of fresh basil, sliced thinly
-a handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
-1/2 cup of white wine
-1/2 cup of chicken stock (you might want to get the reduced sodium chicken stock since the olives, capers and cheese are pretty salty)


In a large stock pot, bring water to a boil for the pasta. In a large skillet, over medium high (I had my burner between 6 and 7), heat 2 TBS of the olive oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes. Add in the anchovy paste and let that melt into the olive oil for 1 minute. This will spatter a bit, so you might want to step away from the pan. Add the Italian sausage and let it brown and caramelize on one side. When you turn the meat over, you can add the shallots to the pan. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and let the liquid reduce. Add in the olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes and basil. Warm through, then add the roma tomatoes and chicken stock. (At this point, drop the pasta into the boiling water.) Simmer for 5 minutes. When the roma tomatoes have rendered their juice and have softened, add in the entire can of tomato paste. Stir to combine. With a microplane or other zesting tool, zest the lemon into the sauce. (You just want to take the color off of the lemon. That's where all the essential oils are and it has more flavor than the juice. Try not to get any of the white part of the peel in the sauce, this can make it bitter.) Juice one half of the lemon into the sauce and stir in the parsley. Drain the pasta after it has cooked for 8 minutes. (You want to drain the pasta when it's still al dente (which means, it has a little bite to it) because it will continue cooking as you combine it with the sauce.) Return the pasta to its pot and sprinkle the cheese over it. Pour the sauce over the cheese and pasta and stir to combine.

*Cook's Note: I prepped all of my ingredients before I started. There is a lot of chopping in this recipe and if it's all prepped and ready to go, then you can just drop it into the pan. :)

Of all the red sauces I've made, this is the one I'm most proud of. I could taste all of the ingredients separately, yet together. I could tell when I ate an olive or a caper and the lemon juice really brightened the flavor of everything. This recipe is really versatile, too. When I originally wrote this recipe, I was going to do another chicken roll-up with a sun-dried tomato, kalamata olive and caper filling. I also thought of doing a pasta salad with the same ingredients (plus some feta) and a lemon vinaigrette with shredded basil. So, there are 3 different recipes you can play around with! Let me know what you come up with! :) Happy cooking!