eNTeNG loved this – Cynch Castro’s Pasta Puttanesca with Tuna

Cynthia "Cynch" Castro's Pasta Puttanesca with Tuna! Loved it!... Photo courtesy of the Gustaf Serrano.

 

Four years ago, I shared my own Pasta Puttanesca recipe through our department newsletter in the office.  It was featured as ‘Recipe of the Month.’  I haven’t come down to it but lately, I’ve been thinking about sharing it here too.  And I will.  I will reproduce my four-year old write-up for this blog.

 

Apart from Angel Hair Pomodoro, Puttanesca is the other pasta I love.  Adore.  Lust over.  Yes, you read it right – lust over.  Name any other emotion to come close to a strong feeling of great desire for something, I’ve felt it for puttanesca.  It’s actually ironic to declare here that I ‘lust over’ puttanesca, I mean, given the widely accepted origins of the dish (specifically, the name).  But I won’t digress by explaining it in excruciating detail here.

 

Besides my own recipe, I feel it’s kinda hard to find a really authentic ‘enough’ puttanesca.  I can only think of one place where I got one that sent my heart aflutter – Gus Al Dente Restaurant at the Sarabia Manor Hotel in Iloilo City.  But I’m saving that for an upcoming ‘eNTeNG’s The Best Of…’ entry.

 

Yes, I can only think of that place when I think puttanesca.  But last week, I got the chance to savor a version of this dish that has come close to rivaling Gus Al Dente’s and which, I officially now declare, is an official ‘eNTeNG loved this’ entrant.

 

It is none other than ‘Cynch Castro’s Pasta Puttanesca with Tuna.’

 

I was very lucky in making this unexpected and fortunate discovery on a toxic day at work.  I was dragging my feet to the cafeteria after a ‘tumultuous’ meeting with my counterparts (that extended way beyond 12:00NN).  I was consoling myself, almost reduced to tears, at the sight of the viand ‘choices’ I ended up with – the last chicken something and pork spareribs something, both scraped off from the chafing dishes.  So it was such a relief when out of nowhere, my good friend Ms. Jo Damian (Business Group Human Resources Partner) pulled me aside and asked me to join in on their small Christmas party.  She had actually texted me hours earlier.  But swamped as I was, I failed to check my messages.

 

Inside the party place that was one of the conference rooms, I saw an almost wiped out table of what I could surmise as some of the most sumptuous dishes that combined home-cooked goodness and the best of store-bought (the roasted pork bellies and cut-up chicken pieces were a dead giveaway).  But my myopic vision, aided by spectacles framed by Emporio Armani (bought on a huge discount!), zoomed into the pasta dish that unassumingly sat in the ‘melee’ that was the table.

Wide-eyed at the lovely puttanesca in my hands...

 

I immediately dumped on my plastic plate a huge serving of the spaghetti noodles, and then smothered it with the sauce.  Undeniably, it was puttanesca.  Before I dumped in a heap of the grated cheese (which I thought at first as parmigiano reggiano), I saw right away the olives, the chunks of tomatoes, the bits and pieces of the onions and the flakes of tuna that made the dish more special.  With my pasta sitting on arguably the simplest of plates, I didn’t entertain any high expectations of it.  Yes, it was a case of ‘eating with the eyes first.’  The olives, tomatoes, onions glistened when hit by the light – and they did entice me – but it was quite a stuggle to look past the plate.  Hahaha!

 

With the prongs of my fork, one of which bent really bad, I pierced the most tempting tomato chunk perched on top of the noodles.  I made one more thrust that speared through the tuna flakes before twirling the spaghetti around my fork.  With the ambient sound of tens of co-employees babbling about, I took that first bite.  I instantly felt everything around me quieted down.  The sensation of the first bite drowned out the crowd around me.  It was that (shall I say surprisingly?) good!

 

I’ve always believed that making pasta sauces is a showcase of one’s skill in either one or both of these – to whip up the best of the freshest produce (bounty of the garden!); or, to whip up the best of whatever the pantry has in store (bounty of the kitchen cupboard or shelves).  Pasta puttanesca falls into the latter category.

 

And Cynch did make a showcase of her cooking skills with this one!  And later, when I realized that she had to make tweaks in her recipe to cater to the restrictions some of those who’d share her pasta have, I gained an even deeper level of appreciation of the work she put into the dish.  On the one hand, you may argue the changes rendered the final sauce unauthentic, but the good thing about it was that, you would never know!  She did away with the capers and the achovies, and toned it down further by cutting down the olives.  But it still worked for me.  I think the tuna made up for the savory sensation I would’ve expected the pickled caper flower buds to contribute to the dish as the pungent relish.  The tuna also stretched further to release the ‘nutty’ hint on the background that anchovies unsually provide.  And the tomatoes, gosh…  I fell in love.

 

Sometimes, the simplest of sauces could be the hardest to get right.  But the pasta puttanesca with tuna that Cynch made was just superb.  As the sauce was made from ingredients mostly straight out of the can, I was pleasantly surprised to find how fresh the dish tasted.  The tomatoes and olives were literally bursting with their own juices.  And no component tasted ‘out-of-the-can’ at all, if you know what I mean.

 

I have to admit, sometimes (pay attention to the operative word!) I sample other people’s dishes and expect to find something wrong with them.  More accurately, something I don’t like in them.  Yeah, I admit I have that expectation sometimes.  After all, as I have said time and again, food appreciation is subjective.  And with a dish I so love – like pasta puttanesca – the bar just couldn’t help but be raised high.

 

But this one cleared that bar just fine.  Thanks, Cynch!

My blue adidas jacket perfectly sets off Cynch Castro's puttanesca!