Simple ingredients made delicious for your midweek fix

Don’t deny yourself broad bean and peas puttanesca, it’s too good.

  • SERVES: 4
  • PREP TIME: 20 mins
  • COOK TIME: 20 mins

Broad bean and peas puttanesca

This recipe comes from Thomasena Miers, which was inspired by Nigella Lawson.

However, Spaghetti alla puttanesca has been an Italian classic for a long time.

But here is a slight twist on the original.

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large white onion, peeled and finely sliced
  • A pinch of salt
  • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1-2 tsp dried chilli flakes, to taste
  • 6 tinned anchovy fillets, drained and chopped (leave out if you’re vegetarian)
  • 400g tinned cherry tomatoes
  • 75g pitted black olives, stoned and halved
  • 75g capers, drained
  • 400g frozen broad beans, podded (or use peas)
  • 300g dried spaghetti
  • 1 small handful of chopped parsley
  • Freshly grated parmesan, to serve

Method

  1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large pan.
  2. Add the onion, season with salt and saute for about 8 mins, until soft.
  3. Now, add the garlic, chilli flakes and anchovies, and cook for a few more mins while you break up the anchovies with the back of a wooden spoon.
  4. Add the tomatoes, olives and capers, and let the mix simmer away gently.
  5. Meanwhile, put a large pan of salted water on to boil for the pasta.
  6. Blanch the broad beans (or peas) in this water for a few mins, then lift them out with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a small bowl.
  7. Now add the pasta to the water pan and cook until al dente, which should be 1 – 2 mins less than the packet instructions tell you.
  8. While it’s cooking, remove the outer skins from the beans, then tip the beans into the tomato sauce.
  9. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and reserve half a cup of the cooking water.
  10. Add the pasta and most of the chopped parsley to the sauce, stir for a minute, and then loosen with some of the cooking water as the pasta soaks up the liquid from the sauce.
  11. Serve with a little more parsley and grated parmesan.
Broad bean and peas puttanesca