Puttanesca with Red Pepper Spaghetti.

Tonight dinner was picked by my nephew Dakota(12 years) and made by him and Jake. I am not totally sure how they made the whole thing but I know they did a couple of things their way. For one it called for dry vermouth but Dakota will not cook with alcohol. they switched out the capers for green olives. The other thing they changed was the anchovies. Instead of using the actual anchovies they used anchovy paste.

For the sauce they heated 1/4 cup EVOO in a deep large skillet, then added the anchovy paste, cooked it for a few minutes. Next stir in 4 thinly sliced cloves of garlic and 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes. Add the 1/3 cup of chicken stock and the juice of 1 lemon, stir for 1 minute. Add 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes. Increase the heat a bit, stir in a handful of finely chopped flat leaf parsley, a couple of leaves of fresh basil, 1/2 black olives, and 3 tbls chopped green olives. Bring the sauce to a bubble cook to thicken while the pasta water comes to a boil and pasta cooks.  Save a 1 cup of the pasta water before draining. Drain pasta mix it in with the sauce. Add in the pasta water to help mix it together.

They also made chicken meatballs. They took ground chicken, mixed in 1 egg, garlic, dried thyme, oregano, basil. bread crumbs, and parm cheese. They made round balls and baked at 400 for 15 minutes. This was a great dinner, but they followed it up with dessert. Jake taught Dakota how to make the chocolate souffle. I can't tell you how because Jake hasn't shared his recipe with me.