Puttanesca Sauce

While not strictly a Puttanesca in terms of its ingredients, the circumstances of this sauce's creation were certainly in keeping with the spirit of the original.  No, not the puttana thing (one school of thought argues that the name 'Puttanesca' derives from the italian word for whore, the sauce supposedly thrown together from common larder ingredients by busy Neapolitan prostitutes.  It begs the question what the clients thought of all these garlic and anchovy eating working girls...) rather, the alternate account, that of the restaurant owner who was about to close for the day but was asked by some late and very hungry customers to Facci una puttanata qualsiasi- basically meaning cook us any old thing. 

Similarly faced with a nearly empty cupboard and a late-night dinner, I too, embarked on throwing what I had hanging about into the pasta sauce.  A jar of anchovy-stuffed green olives in the fridge served as the inspiration for a puttanesca-style dish, but having no anchovies themselves, I fishied up the flavour with a tin of tuna.  The result:

Ingredients
95g tin of tuna in olive oil
1/2 an onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, crushed
2/3 tin crushed tomatoes, or equivalent fresh tomatoes
Handful of olives (preferably anchovy-stuffed but any kind will do)
Dried chili flakes, add according to taste
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
Chopped, fresh parsley, to serve (optional)
Squeeze lemon juice, to serve (optional)

Method
Fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil until softened.  Add tin of tuna and stir until amalgamated. 

Add tomato and chili and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add olives and continue cooking until heated through.

Serve with spaghetti and scatter over some chopped, fresh parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Serves 1