Spaghettini with Stuff-we-had-in-our-fridge Sauce

I’m not really going to try and explain the reason behind selecting the ingredients of this dish, the title is pretty much what you need. One can argue that this is a slightly altered version of a pomodoro basilico recipe or just a very lazy person’s putanesca. In real honesty, we wanted to have some pasta and this combination hit the spot after a long, hard day at work.

I won’t insist pasta wise, we just bought a case of spagettini (love the name, by the way, I just keep picturing some Mario style Italians saying this over and over). In case you wanna go home made, we already covered our pasta making wonders in previous posts (in case you forgot, check it out here). 

For the sauce: 1kg of tomatoes (that I cut in half and used a fine grater to transform them in a fresh sauce), 1 large onion, 4-5 cloves of garlic (sounds like a lot to you? Maybe you should read this), about 2 handfuls of olives (a mix of kalamata and black olives, both whole and diced), 1 handful of chopped fresh basil. So, the magic went like this: heavy base pan, 2 tbs of olive oil (on a personal note: in dishes like this one, where the ingredients are few and I try to really make them shine, I like to use a strong, fruity kind of oil, I use Spanish, but you can get the same taste from Italian, Greek or Turk, just make sure you see that dark green kind of color), high heat, diced onion, olives in, cook for 5-6 minutes, add garlic, another 1-2 minutes, then add the grated tomatoes (make sure the skins are not in there), bring to boil, reduce heat to  medium-low, cover, let it simmer down until it reaches your desired consistency , add the chopped basil, cook for another minute. 

Add the pasta cooked al dente (read the instructions on the case or, my favorite, taste often) to the sauce, coat the pasta with the sauce and let it stay in there for another minute. Serve with some olives thrown and on top, and, most naturally, with grated parmesan on top. 

A really nice, light dinner with not a lot of fuss and a lot of great, summer taste. If you manage to get your hands on nice rose wine for this one (and maybe a garden with a view to the sea), you got yourself a great evening.

Enjoy!