Monday, March 31, 2008

Polenta Puttanesca

This turned out really great, but the polenta made it quite heavy. After one serving I was feeling quite fat and happy.

Polenta
2 Anchovy Fillets
3 cloves garlic
3 TB Olive Oil
1/2 cup pitted olives (I used kalamata, but wanted to use black)
2 TB capers, drained
1 28oz can whole tomatoes, drained, seeded (at least somewhat)
1/2 Cup Red Wine
red pepper flakes
1 can tuna

I went straight from How to Cook Everything for the polenta, but a recipe isn't hard to come by. This one is pretty close to Bittman's, except that I cooked it soft, so really only about 20-25 minutes, and spooned it into bowls.

The sauce was an amalgam of Bittman and a similar one in Cooks Illustrated. I heated up the oil, medium low (I didn't really have a good size skillet for this, so I actually used our stir-fry pan...), crushed the garlic, and cooked it and the anchovies until the anchovies were entirely broken up and the garlic was golden (3-4 minutes, maybe). Add the wine and reduce it about half. Crush the tomatoes, and add with the remaining ingredients. Increase heat to medium-high, cook until saucy, add a touch of oil.

We spooned the sauce over the polenta. We used the remaining polenta for breakfast the next morning (just topped it with a fried egg). Then we tossed the remaining sauce with pasta for a quick dinner.

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