When my husband was single, he learned to make a simple, but amazingly delicious pasta sauce using 3 ingredients. This is a guy who otherwise lived off of premade meals from the market. So if you want to know what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy, this dish is for you! These days I tend to serve it with fish for extra protein and it never disappoints.
What goes into this basic and very satisfying sauce?
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 can of anchovies
- 1 can of tomato sauce (15 ounces)
Okay, I start with olive oil in the skillet. So it’s 4 ingredients, but olive oil goes without saying, doesn’t it? Sauté the garlic in olive oil until golden. Add the anchovies while smashing with a spoon and slowly stir in the tomato sauce. Simmer while cooking the pasta. It doesn’t get any easier than this. If you want to add just a few more ingredients, read Pantry Pasta Perfection for inspiration.
What Goes With It?
While you could certainly serve it alone or with a salad, a simmering sauce like this is perfect for poaching fish while the pasta cooks. Pictured above, I used mahi mahi because it’s a medium flavored, firm textured wild fish that is readily available in the frozen section of my supermarket. These fillets took a total of 8 minutes to cook over low heat in the sauce, covered. Turn them over about halfway through when they start to look dry/opaque around the edges.
Are you building your confidence in cooking fish? You can see that it’s done when it flakes in the middle with a fork. See how the flesh is just beginning to separate there? Test it if you’re not sure and cook it longer if necessary.
This would be delicious with salmon or sea bass or whatever fish is readily available to you. Just be sure not to overcook it!
So interesting,….and unexpected!
I was expecting Marcella Hazan’s classic red sauce recipe, which is also more delicious than the sum of its parts.
But this is a more adventurous, deeply satisfying riff on red sauce.
Hooray for Michael 👌🏼