Pasta with Spicy Olive and Caperberry Sauce

  

My husband says that looking into our pantry is like looking into the matrix... I think he means it makes his brain hurt. This is a typical scene in our kitchen.

Me: Back to the pantry, hands covered in dough. "Could you hand me the light brown sugar please?"

Clint: Opens the pantry door and stands there... and stands there... and stands there. 

Me: "It's near the dark brown sugar, next to the rapadura sugar... on the third shelf from the bottom, to your left."

Clint: Stands there.

Me: "Right in front of you."

Clint: Hands me the demerara sugar.

Me: "That's demerara sugar."

Clint: "There something here called panela sugar?"

Me: "Forget it Neo."

I admit, my pantry is seriously packed to the max. It's crammed with containers, packets, jars, boxes, cans, canisters, tins and bags of all sorts of ordinary and exotic foodstuffs. Things precariously teeter on the edge of shelves, cans are stacked three-deep, and it looks like total chaos. But I know where everything is. Anyway, how else am I going to throw together a tasty meal after being away for two days if I don't have what is tantamount to a small supermarket in my kitchen?

Disclaimer: I have been known, on occasion, to utter the words, "I don't know what we're having for dinner, we haven't got a thing in the house." to which my husband has stared at me slack-jawed.

Pasta with Spicy Olive and Caperberry Sauce

Serves 4

 500g dried pasta (I used Calamarati - I usually use this with sliced baby calamari just to confuse the kids.)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Chilli paste, to taste (I used 1 teaspoon Ordigno)
About 12 caperberries (small ones kept whole, larger ones sliced)
200g sliced green olives
1 x 400g crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

Put a large pan of water on to boil. Once boiling, salt it well and add the pasta. Cook the pasta to packet directions.

Add the oil to a large frying pan, large enough to hold all the pasta and sauce. Heat on medium then add the garlic. Cook until just starting to go golden. Add the tomatoes, caperberries, olives and chilli paste. Stir and then reduce the heat to low and simmer until the pasta is ready.

Drain the pasta, reserving a little of the pasta cooking water. Pour the pasta into the sauce and toss to coat. Use a small amount of the reserved pasta cooking water to emulsify the sauce. Take off the heat and add the parsley, toss to combine.