The picture of the spaghetti plate from the previous post generated many requests of recipes that I decided to write about it. Thanks to Hubert’s comment I am going to start a new section of this blog with posts about the food we cook aboard Tranquility called Food on the Sea. Some of our cooking tricks while sailing and living aboard may be useful to others that are interested in this lifestyle. Plus they are usually very simple and can be done in every situation, not only on a boat.

Life without a fridge

On Tranquility we don’t have refrigeration. This choice comes from our limited power generation which mainly consists in one 60w solar panel. This still allows us to be totally self sufficient on our electrical power demands. If we are careful we can run lights, fans, radios, pumps, instruments, laptops, tablets and other appliances/devices without need to plug into the grid or to burn fossil fuels to generate electricity.

Refrigeration would take a big toll on our system,and we will be forced to put more solar panels (where? surface on deck is limited) or to find alternative source of power to charge the batteries. As we learned that many people do without refrigeration, we decided to do the same. We also decided to renounce ice and to use the icebox as storage instead. Other cruisers can’t really believe that we are doing it, but the main excuse we hear about having refrigeration onboard is “I have a fridge because I like my beer cold!”. Well, we don’t have alcoholic beverages on our boat, so that solves the problem!

Without refrigeration, we are forced to use the groceries in order of spoilage and to buy groceries more often. We also rely on canned food and other shelf stable goods. Looking for dehydrated cat food for Beta, Kate bumped into a website which is a favorite among “End of times” preppers . Harmony House Foods sells freeze dried and dehydrated food of any kind (broccoli, onions, peppers, berries, literally everything!). We tried them and now we are hooked! For the future we would experiment with drying food ourselves, especially after we fish or bump into a bounty of fresh produce.

 

 

“Spaghetti alla Puttanesca” recipe   

The ingredients in this recipe are all shelf stable. Of course you can substitute any of those with fresh ingredient, it would only improve the result.

Ingredients for 4 people:

Tomato sauce (1 can)

Pitted black olives (1 can)

6 Anchovies

Capers (1 tablespoon, minced)

Garlic (3 cloves, minced)

Extra virgin olive oil (3 tablespoon)

Dry parsley flakjes

Dry hot chili flakes

Spaghetti (1lbs)

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the minced garlic, capers, hot chili flakes and anchovies. Stir until the anchovies dissolve into the oil, paying attention not to make the garlic turn brown. 1-2 minutes should be enough. Then add the tomato sauce, bring the heat to low and let the mixture simmer, steering periodically for at least 20minutes. As a final touch add parsley and the black olives chopped to your taste.

Separately bring a pot of water to boil. If we are in the open ocean where the water is cleaner we use half sea water half fresh water to save our water (and salt!). If you use all fresh water add two teaspoon of coarse salt ( a little more if you use fine salt).  Throw the spaghetti in and steer often to avoid they get glued together. Wait for the recommended time on the package but also taste them 1 or 2 minutes earlier to see if you like them. When it pleases your taste drain them in a colander, mix it with the sauce and enjoy it!!

The above recipe is just a guide. The actual pasta pictured above was made by Kate during a day when we were very low on provisions. She was able to literally open cans and in half an hour the magic was done. It was one of the best pasta I have ever tasted. Parola di italiano!