Puttanesca Pasta Nada
Updated June 14, 2024
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:As many servings as you want
- Pasta
- Salt
- Any combination of anchovies, capers, tuna, black olives, garlic and tomatoes
- Olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- Any combination of fresh herbs, such as basil, parsley, sage or oregano
- Freshly grated Parmesan
Preparation
- Step 1
Cook pasta in salted water to make a lo-fi variation on the theme of puttanesca. Instead of employing each of the classic ingredients above, try just, let’s say, black olives and anchovies. Or, use just finely minced garlic and a few capers. Or good canned tuna and tomatoes. These flavors cry out to be tested in variations.
- Step 2
Heat the ingredients of your choice in olive oil and toss in the cooked pasta with some of its cooking liquid. Season with salt and pepper and top with herbs and Parmesan.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
N.M.P.
When I was 18, I worked at a coffee shop owned by two Italian men. They taught me how to make a killer espresso, and how to smoke cigarettes while reading the NY Times and listening to Leonard Cohen or the Stones. They also taught me what "Puttanesca" meant. They explained that after a long night of hard work, a woman would take whatever she could find in her Italian kitchen (the staples) and make a hearty dinner. 1. "Pedigree" refers to people & animals, not pasta. 2. Sex work is work.
Judy S.
My favorite instant pasta meal with three ingredients. Tuna in olive oil, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, bowtie pasta. Just heat the tuna with its oil and artichoke hearts with all their oil. Toss with pasta. You can add good olives, sundried tomatoes, fresh herbs, etc. Or not.
Eileen
This is my 20 minute dinner: garlic, anchovy, raisins, capers, olives, sometimes artichoke hearts, a little caper brine. I'm making myself hungry.
Bob
I learned a version of this many years ago to make a quick delicious lunch. Set the pasta to boil. Saute a diced onion, a few red pepper flakes, some capers, whatever olives I had, 3 or 4 anchovies. Add half a bottle of whatever marinara was in the cupboard and a can of tuna (drained or not). Simmer a few minutes. Add the pasta and maybe a bit of pasta water. Simmer another couple of minutes. Enjoy!
Tom Hayden
Never just drain a can of tuna and throw the juice away. It’s a savory bonanza!
Piero
Looks delectable… You’re right about keeping things simple… I’m Italian ..Sono Italiano Cooking in Italy is very simple. We don’t use a lot of ingredients like Italian American cooking…Usually, we avoid mincing garlic to put in something we eat… It’s better to sauté the garlic clove and then when you finish the whole cooking, throw it out. You get the flavor without the bitterness. NEVER use garlic powder. Horrible. Always mix any sauce well with the pasta before serving. Never just on top.
Ken
Red pepper flakes are a must, but sparingly. Crushed or diced tomatoes are OK if drained, this will prevent the liquid from watering down the other ingredients. Fresh cherry tomatoes crushed when cooked impart more flavor. Don't add the anchovies until the end. They will mush up if cooked too long. Sometimes just a dash of fish sauce may be yur secret ingredient
Jackie
Yes, you can choose any combination of the ingredients listed. For example, I don't like anchovies so just wouldn't use them. We regularly make pasta using this technique with just garlic, red pepper flakes, and parsley with fresh parm on top. Or with tomatoes and capers.
Dickie
I learned that the first step in the sauce was to melt the anchovies in the olive oil. this way the anchovie taste is in all the sauce not just the globs of anchovies.
Barbara Olson
Like never throwing out the liquid in a can of tuna, the same goes for anchovies - the liquid/oil is gold in salad dressing. Pasta puttanesca is in regular rotation in my house too.
kate paygert
you are overthinking it :)
Margaret
Raisins? Convince me.
Mateo
This is true putanesca style and the reason I don’t know my father, was conceived in Catania, and am living il dolce vita. Ciao!
Fred
Make if fat-free plant based. Sauté the garlic in tamari instead of oil. Onions, garlic scapes, or shallots can add some fun. Same with mushrooms. Skip the dead stuff and add quartered artichoke hearts just before serving.
Maria
Tinned sardines also work
Corey Miller
My first thought was “what does a book critic know about cooking?” but the picture was so enticing and I had ALL the ingredients in various stages of almost finishedness so I dove in. Made a great meal for 2 with a salad and in no time. Thank you!
Name mollyh
We totally enjoyed this excursion into green puttanesca. I used green olives, capers, parsley arugula, basil, garlic, scallions anchovies, tuna in oil w vegetables, and olive oil. Ted chili flakes. Linguine. Parmesan. S P E C T A C U L A R Can’t wait to add tomato!
Jo
Very good! Used artichoke hearts, garlic, capers and good fresh tomatoes. Topped with fresh mozzarella, Parmesan and basil. Next time I’ll try anchovies. Ugh!
Lisa
On a tangential note, Melissa Clark's blond puttanesca recipe is so good. It's basically what's going on here, plus arugula. If you haven't tried it, I enthusiastically commend it.
mimi
Christine, I love anchovies but I have very fine tuned anchovy radar, as well. Glad you found a recipe to try!
Amara Y
Skipped the cooking altogether on a hot summer night. Pulled out all the little bits and bobs from the fridge: the last tablespoon of capers, two small sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, canned sardines, a few Kalamata olives (working with what we’ve got), the two tiny tomatoes I harvested from the garden, and the last of the parsley before summer heat claims it. Tossed together with some fresh Parmesan and good olive oil, plus the oil from the sardines and sun dried tomatoes. Heaven on a plate.
Christine Whittington
This is my kind of Puttanesca recipe. I will make it very, very soon. As much as I try--and I really do try, to the point of making it a New Year's resolution one year--I cannot get myself to tolerate anchovies. My apologies to the Deities of Great Food and to my mother, who ate them out of the jar. People tell me I won't notice them, but I do. I have excellent anchovy radar. I love everything else in Puttanesca, including capers (despite Donald Sutherland in "Invasion of the Bodies Snatchers."
Lea
40 years ago or so, I used to work in a gourmet deli in Berkeley. Our tuna pasta salad was made by processing anchovies, capers, seasonings, thinned with light cream in the food processor. That was the sauce for the pasta which was served with flaked tuna, cherry tomatoes and… (Fill in the blanks because I cannot remember)… Probably scallions. What I do remember was the magic of that sauce combination. Delicious!
Landgirl
Lucky I already know how to make this, because the recipe offers nothing. How about some approximate measures?
Note about notes
I think the recipe was written as an invitation for comments, which may be the most delectable, salty and umami NYT cooking comments yet. I’m devouring them all with lots of olive oil and al denté spaghetti (don’t forget to save a splash of that cooking water!)
Sharon
The critical first step in a puttanesca sauce is the anchovies should be added to the olive oil in the pan and slowly “dissolved” in the olive oil. This makes them part of the sauce rather than part of the dish. All other ingredients are added after this.
Bill
What does lo-fi mean. ?
John Burgeson
Some might look at the ingredients and find it off-putting. But when you put it together, it’s really good. I dialed back on the cherry tomatoes so they wouldn’t overwhelm the dish.
Kevin
If your tuna is packed in water--most puttanescas call for tuna packed in oil--empty the oil from the tin of anchovies into a bowl with the drained tuna and mix. Yum.
Dave
It is pretty sad when you start printing recipes that are no longer recipes.
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