Pasta Puttanesca, or Spaghetti alla Puttanesca, is an aromatic and flavor-packed Italian recipe with a sauce filled with flavorful ingredients like olives, capers, lots of garlic, and anchovies. Never cooked with anchovies before? Don’t fret – this recipe is beyond easy and takes only 10 minutes of prep.
Puttanesca sauce requires capers, black olives, hot pepper, garlic, parsley, anchovie s, and ripe vine tomatoes. Don’t swap the latter for canned, bottled sauce, or diced tomatoes – fresh tomatoes reap the best result. Garlic is another important ingredient. Depending on preference, it's advised to use one or two cloves per pound of pasta.
Here’s a recipe for vegan puttanesca that uses nori and tamari (or soy sauce) to boost the umami flavor without the fish. To make this a one-pot pasta, make the sauce in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add 4 cups of water or chicken broth to the sauce and bring to a boil.
Depending on preference, it's advised to use one or two cloves per pound of pasta. For the pasta, we recommend a long pasta like spaghetti, which is what the traditional recipe calls for, but you can use any pasta of your choice. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and blanch the tomatoes for a couple of minutes.