Pasta Alla Puttanesca Ricetta (Spaghetti Puttanesca)

5 from 5 vote

Pasta Alla Puttanesca Ricetta (Spaghetti Puttanesca)

My Easy Pasta Puttanesca recipe is a really simple and budget friendly tomato based sauce. Made with a savory mix of anchovies, garlic, olives, hot pepper flakes, and capers. Spaghetti is tossed in this delicious sauce and it's garnished with some chopped fresh Italian parsley. A little bit spicy, and super flavorful!

Prep Time5

Cook Time13

Total Time18

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: easy dinner, Italian recipe, pasta, puttanesca sauce, Sauce

Servings: servings

Calories: 327kcal

Author: Lora

Equipment

Ingredients

1 pound spaghetti
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4-6 anchovy fillets to your taste
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional and use more if you like it hot
3-4 large garlic cloves minced
1 28- ounce can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
½ cup pitted gaeta or kalamata olives, sliced
4 Tablespoons capers
salt for the pasta water and optional for the sauce
½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once the water boils, salt it. Bring to another boil, and add in the pasta. Cook it to 1 minute less than al dente.
In a large saute’ pan, add the extra-virgin olive oil and heat until it’s shimmering. Add in the anchovies and stir with a wooden spoon breaking them up. They will melt right into the oil. If you are making your sauce spicy, add in the red pepper flakes (to your taste).
Add in the garlic and once it is fragrant and has a little color, add in the tomatoes and their juices.
Stir with wooden spoon to break up.
Add in the olives and capers and bring the sauce to a simmer. Check the sauce and add a little salt, if needed. Mine was salty enough from the anchovies, olives, and capers, so I did not add any salt.
As soon as the water boils, boil your pasta (I used spaghetti and mine was just before al dente at around 8 minutes). Drain the pasta when it is just before reaching al dente. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta water.
Raise the heat of the sauce a little. Add the pasta to the saute’ pan with the sauce. Stir to combine and add a little bit of pasta water if the sauce is too thick.
Plate up the pasta and add on some chopped Italian parsley. ENJOY!

Notes

Olive oil: Find a really nice extra-virgin olive oil. It's just a little bit to start off the sauce, but the better the quality, the better the flavor of the sauce.

Tomatoes: Use the best quality tomatoes that you can find for this sauce. I highly recommend the San Marzano Dell’Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP Tomatoes. Not just San Marzano, but they have to say Dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino DOP to be truly the best!

Anchovy filets: If you don't like them, you could leave them out, but it's not going to be an authentic puttanesca. It does not have a strong anchovy flavor. It actually melts in the pan and creates this salty and delicious combination of flavor with the olives. Once you take a bite, you'll be hooked on this flavor!

Garlic: The garlic only needs to get fragrant. Burnt garlic is very bitter, so be sure to add tomatoes as soon as the garlic gets a little aromatic. It should not take more than 1 minute. Keep an eye on it!

Spaghetti: Buy the best spaghetti brand you can find. You want to cook the pasta to al dente. Set a timer so you don't forget. If it's mushy, it won't be any good mixed with the sauce.

Pasta with the sauce: The pasta get combined in the pan with the sauce. Unlike photos you may see online, the sauce does not get plopped on top of the dry pasta. Otherwise, you're not making it the authentic way, and it will not taste the same.

Nutrition