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Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

A quick, easy Italian pasta sauce made with fragrant tomatoes cooked with anchovies, black olives, capers and garlic. Made with pantry staples this pasta is a quick weeknight meal. A fancy spin on a traditional marinara sauce.

Course Entree, Main Course, Pasta
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Recipe Thief

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic , finely chopped
  • 2 oz can anchovy fillets , chopped
  • 1 can plum tomatoes , drained and chopped, reserve juice
  • Pinch dried red pepper flakes (optional)
  • ¼ cup capers , drained
  • ½ cup black olives , pitted and chopped
  • Fresh parsley , chopped
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 lb spaghetti

Instructions

  1. Cook garlic and anchovies in oil for a few minutes until softened.

  2. Add tomatoes and juice, and the red pepper flakes, if desired. Simmer 10 minutes.

  3. Add capers and olives and simmer about 10-15 minutes longer, until sauce is nicely thickened.
  4. Cook spaghetti until al dente and drain well. Toss sauce with hot pasta in a warm bowl. Taste, adjust seasoning and serve at once.

Recipe Notes

I use spaghetti rigati noodles, they are spaghetti noodles that have lines on them. I like how the lines help the sauce stick to the pasta, since it isn’t as saucy as traditional marinara sauce. I start the pasta water when I start cooking the garlic and anchovies, that way everything is ready closer together. Also I don’t drain the noodles in a strainer; I transfer them directly from the pasta water into the sauce. Sometimes, the sauce can get very thick very quick and having reserved starchy pasta water to help thin out the sauce works great. If there are leftovers I ladle some reserved pasta water to help keep the pasta from absorbing all the sauce. That way there is no dry pasta in the refrigerator the next day, if you can wait that long to eat the leftovers! It’s so good you might not be able to wait. I also use canned chopped tomatoes (petite if you can find them) instead of buying the larger tomatoes in a can, and then having to chop them myself. It saves a few minutes and the canned chopped tomatoes are a nice uniform shape.