Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Fusilli alla Puttancesca, or as my favorite Italian chef Lidia Bastianich calls it, Fusilli as made by Ladies of the Evening, is what I made on day two of "Cook With What You've Got" challenge. All day I planned to make a vegetarian Pad Thai with the rice noodles lingering in my pantry. I thought I had most of what I would need, (with a lot of substitutions) even found a substitute for tamarind paste, using lime or lemon juice with a little brown sugar. But a search through the pantry turned up no peanuts or cashews (must have eaten them during a pantry raid). That was the last straw, so I turned to tomatoes I had canned last summer, pasta, anchovies, and olives. These things I always have on hand. It was pretty good, but I'm disappointed that I couldn't make the Pad Thai. This challenge is going to be harder than I thought! So far, I think I've saved around $15.00, by not buying andouille sausage and shrimp for the Pad Thai. Not bad.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll trade you some tamarind paste and cashews or peanuts for a jar of that tomato sauce.

Debbie Fox said...

Too late, I'm only cooking with what I've got, and I'm on to something else!