Lots of garlic to ensure a tasty pasta dish!

Remember to reserve the spaghetti cooking liquid to add into
the pasta sauce.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:
About 350g spaghetti
6 anchovy fillets
1 tsp dried oregano (*unintentionally omitted while making it this time)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
0.5 tbsp dried chilli flakes (feel free to adjust according to your chilli tolerance)
10 pitted kalamata olives, sliced
400g canned crushed tomato
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp grated parmesan
Olive oil
Salt, sugar & pepper

6 anchovy fillets 1 tsp dried oregano (*unintentionally omitted while making it this time) 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 0 5 tbsp dried chilli flakes (feel free to adjust according to your chilli tolerance) 10 pitted kalamata olives, sliced 400 g canned crushed tomato 1 tbsp tomato paste 3 tbsp grated parmesan

Method:

1. In a large pot, cook spaghetti as per packet instructions. Drained and set aside in a large bowl. Remember to reserve about 2 cups of the cooking water.

2. To prepare the sauce, add some olive oil in a pot and saute the garlic and chilli flakes over medium heat until aromatic. It’s important not to brown the garlic to avoid the bitterness in the sauce.

3. Turn the heat to minimum, add anchovy fillet and use the back of the spatula (or spoon) to mash the anchovy fillets as fine as possible.

4. Then add olives, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and a quarter cup of the spaghetti cooking liquid into the anchovy mixture. Let it simmer over low to medium heat for 10 minutes or more (ideally, until the oil begins to separate from the sauce). Add more of the spaghetti cooking liquid if the bottom begins to stick.

5. Add salt and sugar to taste. I would go easy on the salt as the parmesan cheese that will be added into the sauce in the next step will increase the salt content of the sauce.

6. Add parmesan cheese into the sauce. The is because I keep my unused cheese in the freezer. If you have fresh parmesan cheese, you can grate it over the spaghetti just before serving instead of adding into the sauce. However, by adding cheese into the sauce will result in creamier sauce that will “stick” to the spaghetti noodles better (= tastier spaghetti). If you don’t have parmesan at all, any cheese will do the trick i.e those “plastic” cheese you put in your sandwiches.

7. Toss spaghetti in the sauce and mix well. Serve immediately.