Dirty Martini Pasta
Olives, capers, and anchovy over one-pot bucatini. Salt where a tomato sauce would be.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 21 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 700 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Bikepacking
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Bucatini or spaghetti | 8 oz | snap in half so it fits the pot |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Anchovy filets | 6 | the flat tin, oil and all |
| Pitted green olives | 1 cup | drained from a pouch or jar, chopped at camp |
| Olive brine | 2 tbsp | saved from the jar in a small leakproof bottle |
| Capers | 3 tbsp | drained |
| Dried minced garlic | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried chives or scallion | 2 tbsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/2 tsp | |
| Freeze-dried spinach | 1 cup | |
| Grated hard cheese | 1 oz | asiago or parmesan, the dry shelf-stable kind |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 700 ml of water to a boil with a good pinch of salt. Add the pasta and cook it uncovered, stirring often, until the water is nearly gone and the pasta is soft. Ten to twelve minutes.
- Push the pasta to one side, add the oil and the anchovies with their oil, and mash the filets against the pot until they break down.
- Stir in the garlic, chives, capers, olives, pepper flakes, and spinach. The residual water rehydrates the garlic and greens in about two minutes.
- Kill the heat. Add the brine and stir hard. It should look glossy, not soupy.
- Top with the cheese and grind pepper over it. Salt last, if at all.
Puttanesca without tomatoes is mostly a salt delivery problem, and that suits the trail. Olives, capers, and anchovy are all preserved by design, so the flavor base carries at room temperature for weeks. The anchovies dissolve into the oil and stop reading as fish. What is left is depth.
The pasta cooks in just enough water to be absorbed, so nothing gets drained and the starch stays in the pot to bind the sauce. Measure the 700 ml. Too much and you are eating pasta soup; too little and the noodles seize before they soften. Fresh spinach and scallions do not travel, so freeze-dried greens and dried chives stand in and rehydrate in the last minute of heat.
Packing
Pasta, garlic, chives, pepper flakes, and spinach ride together in one bag. Olives and capers stay drained in a screwtop jar or a doubled zip bag. Brine goes in its own small bottle inside another bag, because it will leak eventually.
Variations
- A splash of vodka in place of the brine is the original move. It smooths out the salt. Skip it if you would rather drink it.
- No anchovies: two teaspoons of fish sauce powder or a spoonful of miso does similar work.
- Swap the spinach for dried kale if that is what the store has.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/dirty-martini-puttanesca