Camping Recipe: Olive Bar Puttanesca

“I have an idea,” Lisa said. She was about to blow my mind.

“Let’s make a puttanesca sauce with olives and ingredients from the olive bar at the grocery store. We could add artichoke hearts. Maybe they have caper-stuffed olives.”

Damn genius. Here’s what we did:

Olive Bar Puttanesca Recipe (serves 2 hungry campers):

• 2 portions of pasta noodles (we’ve been eating Barilla Piccolini that has both whole grains and fiber — though the main selling point is that it cooks really quickly).
• 1 small can of tomato sauce (we’ve got a few cans of Hunts in the van).
• 1 grab-bag of whatever looks good at the olive bar (look for the spicy olives, maybe something with capers, definitely marinated mushrooms and artichoke hearts).

Chop up the olive bar grab-bag — slice the olives, artichoke hearts, etc. Cook the pasta and set it aside. Add a bit of olive oil to your pot (this is a one-pot meal) and give the olive bar ingredients a quick fry. Add the tomato sauce and cook for a few minutes. Then mix in the noodles and serve.  Top with Parmesan if you’ve got it.

Serve it with some cheap and tasty wine. It’s delicious.