Pasta Puttanesca-esque in 10 minutes

For those lovely moments when you open the fridge and think 'oh God, I really need to go shopping' and then realise... you don't. At least, not yet.

  

My lovely friend, Loo, was over for a chat that turned into lunch. With vague panic as I looked in the fridge I summoned up thoughts of Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca, that delicious Italian dish so charmingly translated as 'whore's style spaghetti'. Yes, well.

Anyway, obviously I didn't have the ingredients for that either so instead I gathered together things I know work well and started boiling the water. 10 minutes later we sat down to my new creation, which I thought I should share. Loo loved it. Hope you do too.

What you need

• Enough spaghetti for two people (this varies wildly in our house so I'm shy of specifying amounts)
• 1 generous tbs tomato purée (I always thought this was a cheat ingredient but it turns out even proper chefs use it. Who knew?!)
• 6-8 peppadew peppers roughly chopped (I use hot but mild ones work well)
• 6-8 black olives roughly chopped (particularly good if you've got any marinated ones lurking at the back of the fridge)
• 1 onion roughly chopped (there's a theme developing here) 
• 1 clove of garlic (you guessed it) roughly chopped 
• Toasted pine nuts / fresh basil (optional)

What you do

Start boiling the water for the pasta and get chopping. As soon as the water boils, add your spaghetti with a dash of oil to stop it sticking.

Sauté the onion in olive oil till it starts to soften. Add the garlic, give it a stir then add the tomatoe purée. You'll need to judge the next bit but pour in roughly half a cup of hot water to thin the purée and get it all simmering nicely. You might need a drop or two more, depending on how quickly it evaporates but be careful not to make it too thin.

Next, add the peppers and the olives. If you feel like it, pop in a sprinkling of Bouillon (or half a stock cube) and season to taste. Turn off the heat and throw in your pine nuts and basil.

The pasta should be pretty much al dente by this stage. Strain it but leave a trace of the liquor in the pan. Add the pasta to the sauce - do it this way round so you gather up all the intense flavours from the pan and fully coat the spaghetti. Stir it through and serve.