Pasta puttanesca with mushrooms

Tonight was supposed to be Leftovers For Dinner but my ceramic knife broke and a piece came off of it around the time when I was cutting up onions for the Chana dal I made earlier in the week. I could not find the broken piece and in my totally hyper way I imagined it hiding in the leftover Chana dal among the onions. So we threw it out and made pasta puttanesca instead.

For the sauce I used a can of diced tomatoes with chiles and I added the usual olives and capers along with onions and garlic. In order to bulk up the sauce I sautéed some mushrooms which added a nice meaty texture. The whole grain linguine was dumped into the sauce when it was quite al dente and finished cooking while soaking up the sauce. I added a little pasta water to keep the sauce on the loose side.

Both of our dishes were finished with the last of our basil from the patio. John gilded the lily by adding some good olive oil and Parmesan cheese while I just enjoyed the unsullied flavors.