Japanese chicken and tart's pasta

This week Martin made a couple of meals worthy of comment. There was a dish of roast chicken thighs (bone in and skin on) in a yakitori-teriaki style marinade of sake, soy, grated ginger and honey. M added the honey as he didn’t have any mirin (the sweet Japanese cooking wine you’re supposed to use). After twenty-four hours in the marinade, the chicken spent about forty minutes in a 200c oven, getting a basting every ten minutes or so. The result was beautiful glossy, fragrant, almost caramelised chicken, which was even better when M poured off the excess fat and deglazed the pan with more sake and soy to make a gravy to pour over the top. He served the chicken with green beans dressed with ground sesame seeds and a salad of baby spinach with soy and lemon dressing, and it was delicious. (I only got to chew on a little discarded chicken skin, but the flavour was great.)

The other new dish on the repertoire is puttanesca sauce for pasta. As you probably know, the name means “prostitute’s sauce”, apparently because it can easily be made on the single gas ring you get in the small bed-sits that Italian tarts traditionally call home. (Logically then, if it was British, it would be called “benefit-receiving underclass sauce”.)

Puttanesca is not new to M. Indeed he’s been making it since he was a student, long before he met Annie. However, he gave it up because A wouldn’t eat olives. Now she’s suddenly and inexplicably developed a taste for them, this fast, cheap and delicious dish is back on the menu.

It’s a store-cupboard standard, this. You need
- a small tin of anchovies
- two cloves of garlic
- a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, including all their juice
- about 100g of black olives, pitted and chopped
- about 75g of capers, chopped
- (optional) a dried chilli or two, olive oil, chopped parsley, black pepper
So with the exception of the garlic and (if you’re using it) the parsley, everything can be kept handy in a cupboard for many years, just like cat food. How convenient can you get?

To make it, put a pan on a low heat and put the oil and anchovies in. (You can either use the oil from the can, or drain the fish and use a better quality extra-virgin. That’s why I’ve listed olive oil as “optional”.) As they warm, they will start to dissolve. Help them along with the back of a wooden spoon and add the mashed garlic. When the garlic has softened a little, add the chopped tomatoes. Allow to bubble away for about ten minutes, then add the olives, capers and, if you’re using them, the chilli, black pepper and parsley (you certainly won’t need any salt). Cook until the olives are hot, and serve with freshly drained pasta. Spaghetti is traditional for this, but any pasta will do.

I’ve never considered selling my body, but like most cats, I love pasta alla puttanesca. And apparently “cat house” is a term for a brothel.