Spaghetti with Garlic, Anchovies, and Capers
Categories: Vegetables, Pasta, Main Dishes, Fish and Shellfish
Garlic lovers, listen up. A number of months ago, in his "The Minimalist" column for The New York Times, Mark Bittman divulged his secret for "roasted" garlic in a flash—and it involved no roasting at all, just a gentle stovetop simmer in olive oil. But the real revelation of the piece was his admission that, when a large number of cloves are on the menu, he saves tedium and time by buying (gasp!) pre-peeled garlic. And what about freshness? Personally, I've found whole heads can be more of a crapshoot when it comes to quality—I've purchased far too many through Fresh Direct and also at my corner produce market that are old, desiccated, and even beginning to sprout. But when I buy the pre-peeled stuff at the same corner market—prepared and packaged right in the store—I can see the cloves for myself.
This method of cooking them in olive oil has become a staple in my garlic-loving home. It holds a couple of clear advantages over roasting: there's no messy post-oven peeling and squeezing, and there is a bonus of yummy garlicky oil. Brian and I have been known to eat this stuff with just some bread and a sprinkle of salt. But more often, I use the cloves and oil together as a foundation for a pasta sauce, simmering them with canned tomatoes crushed in a food mill, sauteing them with escarole and cannellini beans for a noodley version of the classic soup, or simply tossing them plain-Jane style with cooked spaghetti and red pepper flakes.
The following pasta brings to the party robust anchovies and capers and the freshness of parsley. Leave the little fishies out if you must—but really, you'll be missing half the fun. I like to use the more boldly flavored anchovies that come in a jar, but if you think you're not a fan, start with the milder tinned variety. The man himself actually published a similar recipe several weeks ago using twenty fillets. Four work for me.
SPAGHETTI WITH GARLIC, ANCHOVIES, AND CAPERS
Twenty cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound spaghetti
4 anchovy fillets
Red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons salt-packed capers—soaked, rinsed well, and drained
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Salt to taste
For garlic: combine garlic cloves and olive oil in a small skillet (I have a 6-inch cast-iron number that works well), simmering gently over very low heat until garlic is completely soft and beginning to brown (about 30-40 minutes). While garlic is cooking, put pasta water on to boil. For sauce, combine garlicky oil and anchovies in a large skillet over low heat and stir until fillets break up and dissolve. Add red pepper flakes, capers, cooked garlic cloves, and stir. Transfer pasta directly from the cooking pot to the skillet, add parsley and salt to taste, and toss everything together. Add a little more of the pasta cooking water if necessary.
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Categories: Main Dishes, Fish and Shellfish, Pasta, Vegetables
Technorati Tags: weekend herb blogging, mark bittman, the minimalist, the new york times, pasta, roasted garlic, anchovies
Delicious - my husband is a garlic lover and keeps me asking to add it to everything.
Hi Patricia--thanks for your comment! I am also in the add-garlic-to-everthing camp. I understand completely.
I love Mark Bittman. He's just so normal. I've already confessed I buy those big jars of garlic cloves from Costco, which reminds me that I'm out of them right now. This sounds just lovely. I'm a recent convert to anchovies, and now I wonder how I missed them for so long.
Hi Kalyn--thanks for your comment! I'm glad you've joined the anchovy bandwagon--I think more people would like them if they took the time to try them, and also realized that they are almost more of a condiment rather than something you eat right out of the can . . .
That is a wonderful recipe. I love all those ingredients. I use anchovies quite a bit, but I usually don't tell people when I do. It lifts the flavor of any dish.
Hi Sher--thanks for your comment! I agree 100%. They are wonderful as a background note.
Sarah, that looks delish.
And yes, I agree that buying garlic can be problematic - they're usually old and sprouting, unless it's freshly harvested and found at the farmer's market or something.
Melissa's has been selling peeled garlic in little individual pouches, and I find them very tolerable. Not really like FRESH but way better than the stale alternatives.
Hi Karen--Thanks! Yes, one of those cases where fresh isn't always better . . . though I am looking forward to visiting the Greenmarket and picking up some of the FRESH fresh stuff from local farms--haven't been yet this year.
Speaking of green markets, which one do you go to? I went and checked out the one in LIC and it was just not happening last summer. I like the farmers at the one in Tucker Square, but that's a haul. Any word on Jackson Heights or Atlas Park? And what is with this timestamp? It's 4 hours off and makes me look like some kinda wild-eyed insomniac.
Hi Corgi--
Well, I used to go to Union Square, because my office was a five-minute walk away. But in October, we moved to the West Village, far enough that it's really not convenient for me to go there on my lunch break. I've actually never been to any in Queens, but I expect to do some exploring this summer. I'll definitely be checking out Jackson Heights, since I find myself in that neighborhood a lot anyway. As for the timestamp, at one point I set it to some weird time because I thought it was helping my blog get listed higher on a site called Foodie Blogs. I keep meaning to change it back, but haven't gotten around to it.
Great site, love the pics and recipes. As an inveterate garlic eater myself, I've noticed an evil taint that has crept into the flavor of the beloved bulb in recent years. It's a slightly acidic note with a touch of something rancid. Rightly or wrongly I've attributed this yuck to the rise of the pre-peeled, hermetically sealed, shipped-from-China-most-likely-by-boat-ferchrissakes garlic. I've been extremely pleased with the quality of the organic garlic that I've been getting from Freshdirect and I take pleasure in whacking those fat crescents with the flat of my cleaver knowing that nothing but clean fresh garlic flavor awaits within their papery jackets.
Hi Corgi--You are absolutely right that pre-peeled garlic is hardly an ideal product--I've just found that it's often no worse than the whole. Thanks for the tip about Fresh Direct--I order from them every week and I am going to give the organic a try!
Of course the other thing about Freshdirect is that if ANYTHING is not completely up to snuff, just hit the contact page and they give you a credit, no questions asked. This week for example, 12 unacceptably green juice oranges were courtesy of FD. So if you do get pullulating cloves, drop FD a line, then split them in half, pop out the sprout and they're still pretty usable.
Yes, I've found Fresh Direct to be very good about this too--I've been issued credit for everything from broken eggs to bad clams to a corked bottle of wine, no questions asked. But if it's something as minor as an old head of garlic, I admit I usually don't bother to contact them, partly because I have a (probably irrational) fear that they keep a black list of people who complain too much and that one day I'll be cut off from FD altogether. Am I crazy or what?
I take the position that since I'm entrusting them to pick my produce for me, they've got to do the right thing. If I receive something that I wouldn't have selected in person, I let them know. Considering that my credits may average like 2.5% on a couple hundred bucks of business with them a week, I doubt they'd want to 86 me.
Psst, speaking of Fresh Direct, I have a ton of codes for free food or money off.
And mm, I was thinking about trying the roasting thing but it sounded so messy. Think I'll try this method instead... yummm. Thank goodness the BF is Italian-bred or I'd have to cry if he didn't like garlic
Hi Yvo--are you going to publish the codes on your blog? How do you get that stuff anyway? As for the garlic, I think that's the beauty of this method--it eliminates the messy job of peeling the cloves after they're roasted.