Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Simple Sardine Puttanesca - and a recipe Video!


We went camping awhile back. We packed up our tiny tent and took ourselves out of Sydney, to the Basin campground in Ku-Ring-Gai National Park, deep in the Northern Beaches. The campsite sits on a large, flat, sandy plateau surrounded by the Pittwater river. The only way to get there is by the local ferry, or by a hefty bush walk. We took the ferry, a beautiful old boat with an open top level, where you can chug along slowly, take in the sunshine and inhale the deep eucalyptus air.

As luck would have it, we had beautiful sunny days on either side of the weekend but for that one night we got rain. We set up our tent with the local wild wallabies hopping around, happily watching us struggle in the drizzle. We made pasta on our new camping stove, waded in the big river and at night sat on the rocks under the stars, enamel mugs full of red wine and played cards.

We decided to make a little film of the dinner we made. Think of it as Nigella goes Bush, minus the kilos of butter and cleavage, and with a few roos added in the mix. Although it started pouring mid-way through dinner...and we had no chairs...and no blankets, we sure did have some rainy fun.

This recipe also signals the premier of my first ever recipe video, uploaded onto my Youtube Channel. Have a look below and tell me what you think! I'm hoping to do some more video recipes soon, and who knows what little animal will feature in the next one...


Sardine Spaghetti (Puttanesca)
Serves 2 hungry campers

1/2 a red onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tin of sardines, in olive oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tablespoon of capers
Big handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon dried chilli flakes
200g dried spaghetti
Salt and pepper

Whack some oil in a pan, get the onion and garlic frying off. In the meantime, put the dried spaghetti into a saucepan of boiling water.
Once the onions are soft, add the sardines and the tinned tomatoes. Let simmer while the pasta cooks.

Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain and add to the sauce along with the parsley and capers. Finish it all off with some lemon juice, chilli flakes, and salt and pepper. Serve with a plastic cup of Italiano red.

No comments:

Post a Comment