olives & capers spaghetti

Jamie Oliver got a bit of stick about his 15 minute meals (for the same reason he got stick about his 30 minute meals). They took longer to make (for the average person lacking the all mighty food processor) than advertised. I can't say it bothers me, there's some great recipes in those books and that's what's important.

However, now I find myself in a new job which comes with a more arduous commute home (getting there is fine, why does coming back have to take double the time?!) and I'm feeling less and less motivated to cook fancy dinners in the evenings. I want fairly quick but tasty dishes, which don't require expensive kitchen equipment or too much effort. Enter my very own 15 minute meal.

Originally found in The Guardian weekend magazine about 4 years ago, it's one of my staples because it's super quick, requires very little effort and is a winner every time. Also, the ingredients are ones that I usually have kicking around the kitchen. In case you're on the lookout for quick dinners and aren't grossed out by anchovies, you could give this a whirl.

Olive, capers, tomato and anchovy spaghetti dish

(Serves 2)
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
150ml of passatta
Two tomatoes chopped into small-ish cubes
2 tbsp of olives (I prefer green ones) sliced
2 tbsp of capers, chopped
7-8 anchovies, chopped (I guess if you don't like them you could leave them out, personally I love them and sometimes I put in 10)
12-15 basil leaves
black pepper
Enough dried spaghetti for two

1. Boil the kettle. Whilst it's boiling chop your tomatoes, olives, capers and anchovies.
2. Cook your spaghetti in a saucepan with some sea salt. Place a frying pan on top of the saucepan and add to it the oil, passata, pepper and all the chopped ingredients. The heat from the pasta will nicely heat the rest. Cool eh? :) Make sure you keep an eye on the saucepan though as it's likely to bubble over.
3. When the pasta is nearly done, tear up the basil leaves and stir into the passata mixture.
4. Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain and divide it between two bowls, top with the passata mixture and the remaining basil. See, easy-peasy.