Feta, Eggplant, and Olive Sauce (for pasta)

This recipe comes straight from While the Pasta Cooks. I rediscovered it last night, and it's an old favorite.

Ingredients:

1 lb. pasta (they say "any shape" but I also prefer fusilli or rotini or bowties in this, I wouldn't make it with any of the "long" pastas)
1 1/2 lbs. small firm eggplant, stemmed, peeled, and cut into thin 2-inch-long strips
1 tsp. salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
12 imported black olives (Mislinis, Kalamata, or Nicoise), pitted and coarsely chopped
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and stir a few times to ensure that the pasta does not stick to itself. Boil vigorously for the time recommended on the pasta package or until the pasta is tender.

While the pasta cooks, toss the eggplant with the kosher salt in a microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave at full power for 2 minutes. Transfer to a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the excess water.

Heat the oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and red pepper flakes and cook until the onion has softened, about 2 minutes. Add the oregano and eggplant and cook until the eggplant has lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, basil, and olives.

Drain the pasta and toss it in a serving bowl with the sauce and feta cheese.

My notes: The key to actually getting all of this done "while the pasta cooks" is to make sure everything is chopped and measured before you start boiling the water. Also, I know I've recommended in other recipes that you don't need to pit the olives, but in this one, it's better if you do. This is also a fairly dry sauce.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

This literally means "spaghetti prostitute style". The story, as I heard it as a child, was that brothels in Italy, long ago, served food to their clients in addition to "dessert", and this spicy sauce came from there. I was looking for this particular recipe months ago and couldn't find it. I ended up with a milder and less tasty recipe than this one; I'm glad I found it again. The traditional recipe includes anchovies, I substitute sundried tomatoes.

You need:

1/2 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 lb. tomatoes, peeled and chopped (canned is fine)
1-2 tbsp. capers
12-16 black olives (normally the recipe calls for pitted, but honestly, just warn your guests that the pits are still in there, and they'll be fine)
1 hot chili pepper (how hot? your choice. You can use jalapenos, serranos, habaneros, dried red pepper flakes, or whatever you can find locally)
1 tsp. fresh oregano, chopped finely
Black pepper
3 oz. sundried tomatoes, packed in olive oil, patted dry, and chopped into small pieces
2-3 sprigs parsley, finely chopped
1 1/2 lbs. spaghetti (you can really serve this on whatever pasta you have around, but this is traditional)
Salt

The instructions:

• Heat the oil in a deep frying pan and saute 2 cloves garlic, crushed, until browned.
• Add the remaining garlic clove, finely chopped, the tomatoes, capers, olives, chili, oregano, and a little black pepper (freshly ground, if possible).
• Cook over a brisk heat for 20 minutes.
• Lower the heat and add the chopped sundried tomatoes, then cook gently for 2 minutes.
• If you used a whole chili, remove it, then add salt to taste.
• If you want things extra spicy, chop up the cooked chili you removed and return it to the sauce.
• Cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water until tender, drain it, and dress it with the sauce while hot.

I would recommend plating this with not just the chopped parsley, but also a sprinkle of parmesan, and some chopped walnuts.