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| Baked Chicken with Puttanesca Sauce |
Spicy. Salty. Fragrant. Delicious. Sugo alla Puttanesca is an Italian pasta sauce whose name literally translates to “whore’s sauce”. There are a few theories about the origins of this sauce’s name. One story claims that 19th century French working girls cooked it between clients, while another claims that judgemental women threw this sauce on prostitutes in the streets while insulting them. All interesting stories, but likely myths. The sauce seems to have actually originated in the kitchen of Sandro Petti, one of the owners of a restaurant and popular night-spot Rancio Fellone in Italy in the 1960s. This story goes that he had nothing but jarred or tinned olives, capers, anchovies and a few tomatoes left in the restaurant’s pantry by the end of the night. So he threw these together to “make any kind of garbage – facci una puttanata qualsiasi” – for late night customers. This sauce bcame sugo alla puttanesca and grew in popularity.
Ingredients
- 1 tub of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 12 kalamata olives, halved
- 1 1/2 tbs baby capers, drained
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 420 g can of diced Italian tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes (or one diced small red chilli)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 large chicken breasts, halved
- Pasta of your choice. I opted for the traditional spaghetti
- Parmesan cheese
Potential Spins
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius/392 degrees Fahrenheit
- Place all sauce ingredients into a casserole dish, stir. Add chicken breasts, cover in sauce.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- Cook your pasta in the final 10 minutes in very salty water, drain.
- Remove the chicken breasts from the dish and slice them. Mix the sauce through the spaghetti or serve it on top. Then top with chicken and parmesan cheese.
- Serve!
