Miss Adventurenaut: Scandalous Puttanesca Sauce

I say scandalous because Spaghetti alla Puttanesca in Italian translates to "whore's spaghetti". I have some ideas why it got it's name, but I'll save my speculations for later. In short, this sauce is spicy, salty and savory; not for the faint of heart, or palette!

For my version of this saucey sauce you'll need (serves 4-6):

Half an onion, diced
3 minced garlic cloves
A tin of boneless, skinless sardines in olive oil
About 6 sun-dried tomatoes
1 whole roasted red pepper, thinly slivered
About 2 tablespoons of capers
A can of black pitted olives, roughly chopped
A healthy dose of crushed red pepper flakes
A couple sloshes of red table wine
3 heaping spoonfuls of tomato paste
A can of drained diced tomatoes

There's a lot of stuff in there, right? Like I said, this is my version, and you can tailor it to your liking, add or omit what you please. This is probably one of the few times I won't add salt to something. Trust me, it doesn't need it. Start boiling your salted pasta water. In a medium sized sauce pan start browning the onions and garlic in, wait for it, the olive oil from the tinned sardines.

(Okay, backtracking; I decided to make this because I just bought a great many tins of sardines from Costco. Why? Impulse buy, maybe? They're really good for you, right? Yeah, they are, look at all those omega 3's.)

Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes as well for the spicy component. Then get all the goodies prepped, the sun-dried tomatoes, roasted reds, olives, capers* and sardines. All of which would make for a kick ass antipasto on a later date.

*Helpful Hint: I learned that capers really can't go bad refrigerated. The brine that they soak in is so acidic that they're perfectly preserved for the most part. So, that jar that you bought two years ago in the back of your fridge is fair game!

Add everything to the browned onions and garlic. Give a stir or two, and add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Let it cook down while the water boils. The final product should be thick and textured.

Add some of that red wine you're drinking. Let the sauce simmer until the spaghetti is ready. Top it all off with big ole' hunks of pecorino romano. Enjoy it with the rest of that wine you didn't put in the sauce.