The Lush Chef

Libations used: 1 bottle of beer
Libations left: None, but crack open another bottle of beer while the sauce simmers.
It may have been Memorial Day weekend, but I wasn't doing any BBQ'ing myself.  I was totally craving pasta after a week of eating tons of kale and salads—I needed the carbs.  Plus, a bunch of my neighbors were around and were HUNGRY, so I needed something easy to make and serve.  Whenever the Lush Chef starts cooking in her building, everyone comes out into the courtyard and starts sniffing around.  What can I say?

I had pinned this recipe for Pasta with Spicy Tomato-Beer Sauce from Saveur a while back, and I happened to have one lonely bottle of Bock beer in the fridge.  It was like kismet.  It's a puttanesca style pasta, and I loved how it included all sorts of yummy things like pickles, capers, anchovies and sun-dried tomatoes. I held back on the spice because not everyone can handle the heat.  For some reason I couldn't track down any red Fresno chiles, so I used an orange Fresno pepper—hey, they both have Fresno in their name.  Yes, the sauce takes almost 2 hours to make, but it's worth it.  The smells are amazing and once you make homemade sauce, there's just no going back to the canned stuff.



Pasta with Spicy Tomato-Beer Sauce - serves 4-6
Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs olive oil
• 1/4 cup capers, rinsed
• 8 cloves garlic, smashed
• 8 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 6 oil-packed anchovy filets, chopped
• 4 red Fresno chiles, seeded and chopped (I used 1 Fresno pepper)
• 4 gherkins, chopped
• 2 red onions, chopped
• 1 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained
• 12 oz Bock beer (German, Italian, use whatever you find)
• 3/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 lb linguini or scialatielli pasta
• 8 caper berries for garnish
• 2 Tbs finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

- Heat oil in a 4 quart saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Add capers, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, chiles, gherkins and onions.
- Stir occasionally, until ingredients are browned, for about 20 minutes.
- Add canned tomatoes and beer and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, for about 1 1/2 hours.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta until al dente.
- Purée sauce in a blender and then return sauce to the pan over low heat.
- Stir in olives and season with salt and pepper.
- Drain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta water (to loosen the sauce, if needed).
- Transfer the pasta to the sauce and toss to combine.
- Serve pasta garnished with caper berries and parsley.