This recipe is especially for my friend Mark Saleski that he might assuage his anchovy hunger. Another of those weeknight wonders and easily one of my favorite pasta recipes. This has pretty bold flavors and is not for food wimps.

Pasta Puttanesca

• 4 tbs olive oil
• 4 medium cloves garlic, minced or sliced thinly
• 4 or 5 flat anchovy fillets, drained and chopped
• 2 tbs capers, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 28-oz can diced tomatoes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 lb penne or other tubular pasta (rigatoni are good here too)

While you boil the water and cook the pasta, make the sauce.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and anchovies and stir, breaking the anchovies up with a wooden spoon until they’re pretty well dissolved in the oil. Add the tomatoes and season lightly with salt (the anchovies are going to be pretty salty, so TASTE IT) and more heavily with freshly ground pepper. Let it bubble at a lively simmer until the pasta is nearly done, then add the olives, capers, and parsley. Taste for seasoning, and when the pasta’s ready, toss everything together.

Do serve a good, crusty bread with this, and something to drink that will stand up to the sauce — a non-wimpy beer or a full-bodied red wine are both good choices. A nice accompaniment is a hearty green salad, and maybe a chunk of good Parmigiano-Reggiano.

If you consider the ingredients for this dish to be pantry staples (and you should) you can whip this up pretty much any time on the spur of the  moment. The recipe scales well too, in case you have unexpected guests. The sauce by itself is delicious on other things — sometimes when I have a small amount left over, I spoon a bit on top of a piece of grilled tuna or swordfish. Quite spectacular. It would also do nicely on a serving of polenta. This is a great year-round dish — hearty enough for winter, quick enough for a warm summer night. It’s almost like the perfect dish!