Good morning. The Kentucky Derby is on Saturday, the first since last season’s spectacularly sad and difficult outing. I’m about as good of a handicapper as I am a heart surgeon, but here’s my bet: Fierceness, trained by the horseman Todd Pletcher and ridden by the four-time Derby winner John Velazquez. I’ll tip my mint julep to that team at the start of the race and, if I’m not celebrating a couple of minutes later, I’ll still be eating maple-pecan bourbon balls for the win.
That’s all in the future, though, where everything is seashells and balloons, a dream to hold onto until it shatters, my own little sequel to “Uncut Gems.” In the meantime, there’s dinner to make here at the end of the week: tuna puttanesca (above), spiced brininess with caper pops and olive depth, fiery as you like.
There are a couple of excellent details in Lidey Heuck’s recipe for the dish. She uses shallots to enhance the garlic punch beneath the salt and tang, and she doesn’t stint on the anchovies. I like a full half dozen myself, as well as jarred tuna in oil if I can find it, for the chunkiness it brings to the sauce.
Featured Recipe
Tuna Puttanesca
Will I start Saturday with my recipe for sourdough waffles, made with some of the starter that sits, deep in chilly slumber, in a jar in my fridge? I will, because I’ll start them after I’m done cleaning up the puttanesca. The overnight resting of the sponge — unfed starter, buttermilk, sugar and flour — brings big flavor and airy rise every time. (No starter? No problem: Melissa Clark’s recipe for classic waffles delivers the goods.)
