First recipe in the book and man was it delicious. Damn was it hard.

Never have I spent so long in my life hand cutting olives and anchovy fillets, no wonder people get paid to do this job. Anchovy fillets sticking to my knife, olives bouncing all over the place when I’m trying to chop them. How you finely chop anchovy fillets glued together with oil baffles me.

How anyone does this kind of prep with any finesse or speed is beyond me. There was the temptation to throw it all into a blender but I’d rather have not ended up with a paste, that would’ve been some kind of grim.

Onto the cooking itself.

Once everything was nice and prepped, my mise en place all ready to go, cooking it was fairly simple. Cook spaghetti - no biggie. Sautee everything else, no biggie. Mix everything at the end, no biggie. How such simple instructions made something so delicious is some kind of wizardy. Perfect example of how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Taste.

First time I’d ever eaten capers or anchovies and it was good, just the introduction I needed. A slight fishy undertone from the anchovies, which also gave it that umami, that flavour bomb, mixed with the tanginess from the olives, and the sauce created from the wilted tomatoes that oh so delicately coated each strand of linguine. What a blend.

I was too excited to try the food that I completely skipped over the last step of the recipe - “Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with basil leaves”. I blame the lack of garnish on the lack-lustre photo.

The food made enough servings for 5-6 days worth of dinner or lunch and boy was it glorious. Hot or cold it tasted great. Obviously best when served fresh.

Verdict.

I’d definitely make this again. Despite the somewhat laborious, mind-numbing, soul-destroying anchovy fillet and olive chopping, everything else was simple and the effort definitely worth it.