Mea Culpa!

I picked up this book in the library on Thursday, and on Saturday decided to make up one of the recipes - it looked easy, I had most of the ingredients to hand - and it was one of those Saturday night/Sunday lunch things that would do two meals. Perfect!

The recipe was "Spaghetti Beef, Olives, Capers and Anchovies" and RA describes it as "a good and gutsy pasta dish adapted from classic pasta puttanesca [whores' pasta!] Leave out the beef if you wish"

I had a small tin of black olives in the cupboard, also half a jar of anchovies, and half a jar of capers. No beef though. But I did have the necessary olive oil, garlic, onions and pasta, and tin of tomatoes. I figured I could substitute mixed herbs for the tarragon and basil. So I made the simple sauce as the book suggested - but realised that I only had about 2½oz of capers, and the recipe said 10oz, and the tin of olives looked very small. There was half a red pepper languishing in the fridge, so I chopped that up, and threw in three chopped mushrooms too. It bubbled away happily and looked and smelled good [4 garlic cloves is more than I'd usually put in one dish, but I am upping our garlic intake, believing it helps our hearts!]

It tasted fine, although Bob said "These peas are a bit strange"

"They are capers" I replied

"There are quite a lot of them" he said.

"Well - the recipe called for four times as many, but I only had part of a jar" I said "so I stuck in some peppers and mushrooms instead. there are anchovies in here too" [I carefully didn't mention the absence of beef]

Today, when he got in from church, Bob said "What's lunch?" and I said "same as yesterday". "I'd suggest putting in a can of baked beans but I don't think we have any" "I've got chickpeas" "That'll do"

So I put the chickpeas into the sauce, cooked the pasta and it was great. "The chickpeas certainly help, they dilute the impact of the capers" said Bob. It was at this point that I had an awful thought!

I dashed off to get the cookbook - and I realised

I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO SPECSAVERS!!!

The recipe required not 10oz but 1oz of capers!!

Bob was wonderfully forgiving about it all. He did not marry me for my cooking skills. He says he may organise a dance in celebration of this dish and call it a caper-ceilidh

 

But he insisted that I make public confession of my error. Mea Culpa!