Love, Passion ... Kitchen: 30 Minute (plus minus) Dinner: Sautéed Tomatoes, Capers & Olives withDeep Fried Anchovies fillets.

8 o'clock and dinner was still not prepared ... I haven't had any idea what to cook. I wanted to do some Spanish style cooked sardines with the anchovies I bought this morning, but the pressure cooker was no where in sight ... Hidden away by the fireman, who is busy with the Safety day event.

Simplicity & speed were the main idea for dinner. I had fresh anchovies, leftover homemade dried lasagna pasta (from last week dinner with friends - http://asiantune.blogspot.com/2013/09/vegetarian-lasagna-with-homemade.html), tons of tomatoes from last week too, the usual olives and capers in the cupboard.

Started sauteing the finely chopped large onion, with a tablespoon of pureed garlic on a warm-hot pan (but not smoking) under a medium to high fire, until caramelised which took about 5-10 minutes. Then I added the finely chopped 8 medium-sized tomatoes (just use the proportion of 1:3 of onion to tomatoes' size) plus a small bouquet of thyme & finely chopped twigs (2-3) of fresh basil which would have around 10-20 good sized leaves, then lower the fire to medium to medium-low fire and let it slowly cook for another 5-10 minutes, covered & stirring (and tossing if you can) once every 3-5 minutes.

When the mixture is slight dry, add capers 3-4 teaspoon of capers (one tsp caper per two tomatoes proportion) and 5-10 pieces of pitted olives, add a tsp or two of the capers bath and same for the olives ... This would give more flavour for the sauce. Lower the fire to medium to medium-low and let it simmer for another 2-3 minutes, after which, add more olive oil and split the olives. Simmer further for another 3-5 minutes, but under low to very low fire.

While you cooking the sauce, boil water and cook the pasta. My homemade lasagna pasta cooked around 7 minutes, which would be al dente.

As the pasta and sauce are cooking, fillet the anchovies and wash them. Dry a bit by rolling on a tea towel or kitchen paper. I prefer the kitchen paper, as the tea towel would need to be washed afterwards, unless you like the fishy smell <wink>.

There is a video of me filleting an anchovy. It seems that tablets & smart phones does not support this format. You can view it via your computer or laptop.

Season the anchovies fillet with salt and ground/powder plus a bit of corn starch (to make it a bit more crispier). Heat up a good enough the oil to about 140-160C, to deep fry the fillets. Make sure your oil is HOT, but not smoking, and DO NOT OVER-CROWD. Deep-fry until crisp.

When you are starting to put the fillets in the oil, remove the sauce from the fire ... At the same time, drain the pasta and plate, then drizzle with some oil to prevent it from drying up and sticking to each other and plate. I would even drizzle some oil first on the plate, if not the sauce.

Then complete the ensemble by topping it with the crispy anchovies.