Marilyn Martin's Recipe

Capellini with anchovies, capers & tomatoes

Category: Recipes

Capellini with a Sauce of Anchovies, Capers, and Fresh Tomatoes


Ingredients for the Sauce
2 or 3 fresh medium-size tomatoes (about 1 pound)
2 to 3 ounces anchovy fillets, chopped
(¼ to 1/3 cup)
½ to 2/3 cup tiny "nonpareil" caper, drained
½ to 1 teaspoon dried peperoncino (hot red pepper flakes)
4-5 garlic cloves, sliced (¼ to 1/3)
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Hot water from the pasta-cooking pot

Ingredients for the Pasta and Finishing
1 tablespoon kosher or coarse sea salt, for the pasta-cooking water
1 pound thin capellini, vermicelli, or other thin dry pasta
½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
½ cup Dry Toasted Bread Crumbs (see box)

Preparing
• Start heating 6 quarts of water, with the tablespoon kosher salt, in the pasta pot.
• Rinse the tomatoes, cut out the cores, and slice them in half.
• Squeeze each half over a sieve set in a bowl, forcing out the seeds and juice; clean reluctant seeds out of the halves with your finger. Scrape the seeds against the sieve to extract any remaining juice. Dice the tomatoes into ½ pieces-you should have about one and ½ inch pieces-you should have about 1 ½ cups total-and put them in the bowl with the strained juice.
• Cut the anchovies into 1-inch lengths.
• Prep and measure the remaining ingredients (vary capers, peperoncino, or even garlic amounts to taste) and have them handy to the stove.
Making the Sauce and Cooking the Pasta Simultaneously
• Pour 1/3 cup of the olive oil into the big skillet, scatter the garlic slices in the oil, and set over medium-high heat. Cook for 1½ minutes or so, shaking the pan now and then, until the garlic is sizzling push the slices to one side of the pan.
• Scatter the anchovy pieces in the clear side of the skillet, and drop the peperoncino into another open "hot spot". Cook for a minute or more, as the anchovies start sizzling and melting and the dried peperoncino toasts, then stir and shake everything together.