[Sca-cooks] Re: Capers

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Michael Gunter:
>>Was it yummy? Did you think of poor, caperless 'Lainie as you ate?
>>
>>Poor ole 'Lainie
>>(Yes, I'm poking fun at you :-)
>
>It was decent.
>
>I heated olive oil in a deep pan. Then added sliced garlic and sweated
>that out a bit. Followed that with chopped crimini mushrooms. I added
>red pepper flakes and let that flavor cook in. I have a little package of
>"bake potato toppers" consisting of dried tomatoes, mushrooms, shallots
>etc...that I rehydrated and threw in. Then a package of tuna packed
>in water and the capers with a bit of the brine. I simmered that for
>about 10 minutes and tossed on some whole wheat spaghetti and about
>a quarter cup of the cooking liquid. Some salt and fresh ground pepper
>were added.
>
>It wasn't bad. When I make it again I'm going to change the dried tomatoes
>for fresh and add lemon juice.
>
>Still, a very quick, easy and nice meal with a glass of white wine.

It seems almost as if there was a pasta puttanesca in your soul, 
screaming for release. This is virtually a warm pasta salad, inasmuch 
as the ingredients are tossed together and only the pasta is really 
cooked, usually made with spaghetti, although I'm a thin linguine man 
myself.

Well, in spite of what Lemony Snickett thinks, puttanesca (a.k.a. 
pasta hooker style, presumably because it is quickly prepared without 
any need for refrigerated ingredients, so perfect for the hotel-room 
hotplate, or possibly because of its gaudy, brightly-speckled 
appearance) is the hot pasta tossed with chopped garlic (yes, raw, 
use only a little), good olive oil, sliced, pitted olives of your 
choice, chopped anchovy, capers, tomato concasse (peeled, seeded and 
diced to the heathen unwashed among us), chopped flat parsley, salt, 
pepper, and a few red pepper flakes.

>Heh. And after that I got cooking.
>
>I tried a rather silly recipe I saw on FoodTV.
>
>I shredded a cabbage and tossed it with olive oil and salt. Fried this until
>the cabbage softened. While this was cooking I microwaved diced potatoes
>and carrots then added them once they were softened. I tossed this around
>until everything was well mixed and starting to get a little browned. Then
>added a tin of canned corned beef. Stir and cover and let cook together for
>15 minutes. The result is surprisingly good. This is lunch for a 
>couple of days.
>I've got a container of it waiting for me with a nice dollop of 
>horseradish. I'm
>sure the office will love me once  that heats up.  :-)

I'm sure. It sounds like red flannel hash, without the beets and 
without stopping to make the New England Boiled Dinner first. It 
doesn't sound toxic at all. But maybe, as you say, it's kind of silly.

Adamantius
-- 




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them 
eat cake!"
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04