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Paleo-ish Pasta Puttanesca

Healthy and deliciously rich and earthy (and complete with a secret ingredient), this is seriously THE BEST Puttanesca you'll ever taste!
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Healthy and deliciously rich and earthy (and complete with a secret ingredient), this is seriously THE BEST Pasta Puttanesca you’ll ever taste!

  • Author: Amelia
  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 60 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
  • Yield: 6-8 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1.6 kg  tomatoes (1/3 cherry, 2/3 Roma/plum tomatoes)
  • 5 tbsp tomato paste
  • 5 tbsp olive oil (plus more for roastin’ and the sauce) (OR coconut oil if you’re Paleo)
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2 tsps oregano
  • 1 tbsp sugar (or agave syrup)
  • 1 eggplant
  • 1 medium red onion, sliced
  • 1 red pepper, sliced
  • 1 green pepper, sliced
  • 85 g tin/jar of anchovies, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp red chili flakes
  • 1/2 cup black olives, halved and pitted
  • 1/3 cup capers
  • 1/2 package Squid Ink (i.e. ~ 1/4 tsp)
  • Spaghetti-like pasta (I use King Soba Buckwheat and Sweet Potato noodles which are, blissfully, Paleo!!!)
  • Garnish: roasted cherry tomatoes, chopped fresh basil and (vegan) Parmesan (if you’re into that kinda thing – i.e. not Paleo)
  • Protein Option:  3 Italian sausages, cooked, and sliced.

Instructions

| Veggie Roasting |

  1. Preheat the oven to 400° F and line a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
  2. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and put them in one bowl.
  3. Cut the plum tomatoes in quarters and put them in a second, larger bowl.
  4. In a third bowl, combine the tomato paste, 5 tbsp olive oil, oregano, garlic and sugar.  Split the mixture between the two bowls and toss until tomatoes are evenly coated.
  5. Put the cherry tomatoes on one pan (or on half of one pan) and the plum tomatoes on the other baking sheet (or the other half of the baking sheet).  Save the bowls.
  6. Roast for 25-30 mins.  Once roasted, let tomatoes cool and put back in their original bowls for later.  Wash the baking sheets for the eggplant rounds coming up.
  7. While the tomatoes are roasting, slice the eggplant into 1 cm thick rounds.  Place rounds on paper towel on your counter or on another baking sheet.  Sprinkle salt on the eggplant rounds, and let rest for 10 mins.  Little brown droplets will appear on the eggplant rounds (this is normal!).
  8. Flip the eggplant rounds over and sprinkle the other side with salt.  Let rest for 10 mins.
  9. Quickly rinse the salt and brown liquid drops off the eggplant rounds, and arrange in a single layer on the baking sheets.
  10. Using a brush (or paper towel if you don’t have a pastry brush), coat the eggplant rounds in a thin layer of olive oil, then season with salt and pepper.  Repeat for the other side of the eggplant rounds.
  11. Roast for 30 mins, flipping all rounds over at the 15 minute mark.
  12. Once roasted and cooled, chop the eggplant rounds into quarters-ish.

| Sauce Makin’ |

  1. Heat ~2 tbsp olive oil in a cast iron skillet or frying pan over medium heat.
  2. Sweat red onion and pepper slices until translucent.
  3. Add the chopped anchovies and chili flakes, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
  4. Purée the roasted plum tomatoes in a blender until sauce-like.
  5. Add tomato purée to the skillet.  Stir to combine.
  6. Add the capers, olives and squid ink.  Stir to combine.
  7. If you’re adding sausages to the recipe, toss ’em in now!  Stir to combine.
  8. Serve over your cooked noodles.  Garnish with fresh basil and the roasted cherry tomatoes.  Add (vegan) parmesan if it suits you/your diet.

Notes

  • Inspired by: http://www.thebrickkitchen.com/2016/01/roasted-tomato-eggplant-pasta-puttanesca/
  • You may be wondering why you have to go through the process of salting and rinsing the eggplant rounds.  Did you know that eggplant naturally has nicotine in it?  (Cool eh?) Have you ever had eggplant that just has this weird bitterness to it?  That was because it wasn’t de-nicotined prior to cooking it!  If you put salt on the eggplant and let it sit for a bit, the nicotine is extracted in little brown droplets that you can wash it off, leaving deliciously mellow eggplant flavour in your foods!  If you don’t believe me, taste some of the brown droplets before you wash them off…
  • Now, as I mentioned, squid ink (though possibly revolting in most occasions) is what MAKES this recipe.  Unfortunately, it’s not the easiest ingredient to find. But, like practically everything else, you can buy it wicked cheap from Amazon.ca! AND what you don’t use in the recipe can be frozen for, like, ever.  Win!
  • Also, like I mentioned in my Tomeato post WAY back when, King Soba makes Buckwheat and Sweet potato noodles as well as 100% Buckwheat noodles which are 100% Paleo!  Woot woot!  So, if that’s your jam, I highly recommend getting yourself some of these noodles (personally, I prefer the taste of the buckwheat and sweet potato ones).  I usually find them at health food stores like the place that has almost everything at the St. Lawrence Market in TO or Aliments Merci at Jean Talon Market.  Otherwise, if you’re not Paleo, pick whatever spaghetti-ish shaped pasta you got and cook it up!

Find it online: https://www.paleo-ish.ca/paleo-ish-pasta-puttanesca/