Spanish Spaghetti with Olives

Speaking of cooking, check out this recipe Ted found yesterday. I mainly cook during the week, and Ted mainly cooks on weekends, a habit leftover from when he had a more 9-5 schedule and didn’t get home until late. Now he sometimes works on weekends, sometimes works very early mornings, so I guess it doesn’t matter when we cook what, but we’ve stuck with the schedule, and it works for us.

One thing Ted likes to do when he’s trying to decide what to make is to ask his phone. He says, “What’s for dinner?” and google gives him some ideas. I’m not tech savvy like that, so I don’t know whether that’s an app, or whether it’s because he follows food stuff on google+, but anyway, it works. Last night he asked, and this recipe came up, after artichoke dip. Artichoke dip for dinner doesn’t sound so great, does it? (Oh hell, it does sound good, who am I kidding?)

So he whipped this up for dinner last night, while I was watching a badly edited ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ on TV. Wow, really tasty. Maybe not if you don’t like olives and capers, but we like both quite a bit, so it was a winner for us. This one will be printed and put in my recipe book. I liked the mellow flavor of the sauce, with the bit of heat from the red pepper flakes, and the saltiness from the olives and capers. Give it a try, it’s good.

Spanish Spaghetti with Olives
Ingredients

• 8 ounces thin spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt*
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed saffron threads (optional)**
• 8 ounces extra-lean ground beef
• 1 2/3 cups lower-sodium marinara sauce (such as Amy’s)
• 2 ounces pimiento-stuffed olives, sliced (about 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided

Preparation
1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Stir in oregano, celery salt, red pepper, black pepper, and saffron, if desired. Crumble beef into pan; cook 5 minutes or until beef is browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in marinara sauce, olives, sherry, capers, and 3 tablespoons parsley. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

3. Add spaghetti to sauce mixture. Cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon parsley.

* We didn’t have any celery salt, and it seemed a small difference and not worth purchasing just for one recipe, so Ted ignored this.

** We did have a bit of saffron, but Ted omitted it from the recipe, and I’m glad, because saffron is expensive, and I doubt you’d taste it with the red pepper flakes, capers, olives, and marinara sauce. I’m more a fan of saffron when I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.