Pollo al Forno Con Puttanesca

Baked Chicken with Puttanesca Sauce

Spicy. Salty. Fragrant. Delicious.  Sugo alla Puttanesca is an Italian pasta sauce whose name literally translates to "whore's sauce". There are a few theories about the origins of this sauce's name.  One story claims that 19th century French working girls cooked it between clients, while another claims that judgemental women threw this sauce on prostitutes in the streets while insulting them. All interesting stories, but likely myths. The sauce seems to have actually originated in the kitchen of Sandro Petti, one of the owners of a restaurant and popular night-spot Rancio Fellone in Italy in the 1960s. This story goes that he had nothing but jarred or tinned olives, capers, anchovies and a few tomatoes left in the restaurant's pantry by the end of the night.  So he threw these together to "make any kind of garbage - facci una puttanata qualsiasi" - for late night customers.  This sauce bcame sugo alla puttanesca and grew in popularity.

Traditionally the sauce includes tomatoes, garlic, olives, capers, anchovies (omitted in Napolitan versions as well as my own) and chilli.  The sauce is quickly cooked in a fry pan and takes only anout 5-10 minutes to prepare.  It is usually served over spaghetti as a beautiful vegetarian pasta dish.

I've been dreaming, however of using this sauce with a soft and moist baked chicken breast because I thought the flavours would go beautifully. The name of this dish translates to: "Baked Chicken with Puttanesca". Nom.

Baked tomato, capsicum and chorizo pasta

Pasta. Who doesn't love it?  Here is a tasty and simple pasta sauce made from scratch.  I have made an alternative vegetarian creamy version of this recipe for years, which I will link here when I make it again for this site.   I decided to add meat to use up some ingredients in the freezer and try out some different flavours.  This turned out to be a tasty and simple meal worth sharing.  The basic pasta sauce is so simple and versatile.  There is nothing naughty about it.  The only potential naughtiness is in what you add to it. In this case leftover chorizo from the freezer from Spanish Eggs.  It was pretty cheap, given that I already had pasta, and only needed to purchase tomatoes, a capsicum, some basil, a red onion and some parmesan cheese.  Once we have our herb garden we won't need to purchase fresh herbs any more which will keep costs down even lower :) But that will be a few more months away. I'll post about it when it happens.