I volunteered to make a meal from Sloane Taylor’s new cookbook, Date Night Dinners, Meals to Make Together for a Romantic Evening . I chose the pasta dish, Whore’s Spaghetti, because I love pasta and follow a vegan diet, and this meal was perfect. It was suggested in the book to serve the meal with Parmesan cheese, but I left it off my plate and the meal didn’t lose any of its extraordinary flavor. I absolutely loved this dish and will absolutely be making it again.
Whore’s Spaghetti
Sauce
¼ cup (60ml) olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 – 14.5 oz. can (411g) Italian plum tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped
1 tbsp. (15ml) capers, chopped
1 can pitted black olives, drained and chopped
½ tsp. (2.5ml) red pepper flakes
1 tsp. (5ml) dried basil
1 tsp. (5ml) dried oregano
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, stir 2 – 3 minutes.
Stir in tomatoes, capers, olives, pepper flakes, basil, and oregano. Turn heat to low, and simmer 15 minutes.
Add pepper. Taste the sauce, adjust seasoning to suit you.
Reduce heat to low, simmer another 15 minutes.
Pasta
1 lb. (454g) spaghetti
1 tsp. (5ml) fresh or dried parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente.
Toss pasta with the sauce, sprinkle on parsley.
Serve with plenty of Parmesan cheese on the side.
According to the book, the reason this dish is called Whore’s Pasta is because there was a rumor going around that the Working Girls in Italy “prepared this dish for their late night customers from standard kitchen supplies. It was an added bonus for their clients and an easy way to keep business flowing.” I can’t speak for the Working Girls’ other “services”, but this dish definitely would have kept me coming back for more.
A couple family friends stopped over the night I prepared this dish. Though they had already eaten and swore to me they were so full they couldn’t eat another bite, I placed a dish in front of them and persuaded them to at least “try a little bit.” I put those words in quotes because that “little bit” turned out to be the entire dish, plus another serving. Like me, these friends are Italian, and we Italians can always eat, especially when the meal is a tasty pasta dish.
There is so much I love about this recipe. I’m a huge fan of capers and black olives, another reason I chose this dish. But I also like a little kick to my food, and the red pepper flakes were just the right amount of heat to satisfy my taste buds.
What I loved about this sauce (or gravy as we tend to call it) is that it was more like a coating to the pasta rather than the typical thick marinara sauce of crushed tomatoes that drip off the pasta when you eat it.
I prefer a thinner sauce, so this dish was perfect for me. I’m no cooking aficionado, but I’m assuming it was the olive oil that married this sauce together so nicely. I loved the way the flavors of the capers and black olives blended so nicely together.
I also chose this recipe because it appeared so easy to make, and it was. I love to cook and try new recipes, but I don’t like to spend too much time in the kitchen. I have my limits, and this dish was very quick and easy to make, but because it was so good, my guests flooded me with compliments because they assumed I had worked harder on it than I really did. I eventually shared with them the simplicity of the recipe, and one of them already said they’d be making it, but will add shrimp.
If I still ate shrimp, I’m sure that would taste really good.
Five Stars for this delicious recipe.
Award-Winning author Sloane Taylor is a sensual woman who believes humor and good food are healthy aspects of our everyday lives and carries that philosophy into her books. She writes spicy romance. Being a true romantic, all her stories have a happy ever after. Taylor is also an avid cook whose recipes are featured in Divine Magazine.
Sloane was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago. She and her husband now live in a small home in Northwest Indiana and enjoy the change from city life.
Taylor currently has seven romance books, a Couples Coobook, and two free compiled cookbooks released by Toque & Dagger Publishing. Excerpts from her books can be found on her website http://www.sloanetaylor.com, blog http://sloanetaylor.blogspot.com/, and all popular vendors.
Stay connected on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSloaneTaylor, Twitter https://twitter.com/sloanetaylor2, and Google+ https://plus.google.com/116792660982628183855/posts?hl=en.
aliciajoseph 