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This recipe for Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca is a quick and easy pasta dish for all the family that uses items you can keep in your pantry so it’s easily whipped up in a pinch.
For the perfect pairing, serve with my Homemade Garlic Bread to really fill up your guests!
Spaghetti with puttanesca sauce is an Italian classic. It’s not only delicious, but it can be thrown together in just 15 minutes! What more could you want?
Why This Recipe Works
Using anchovy paste instead of chopped anchovies keeps things simple and eliminates waste.
Finishing cooking of the pasta in the sauce allows the spaghetti to be coated well to absorb the flavors.
What does Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca mean?
Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca is loosely translated to ‘whor*’s Pasta’. Not something you hear everyday right?
The legend is that ladies of the night in Italy would cook this up to lure clientele with its aromas. The idea that they would use food to get the interest of the local men is pretty amusing to me, nothing like food to get a man’s attention right?
Adaptions To Traditional Recipes
Traditionally Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca is cooked with tomato sauce with olives, anchovies, and capers.
I used anchovy paste instead of chopped anchovies to keep things simple and it really worked great.
Step By Step Instructions
Start with bringing a large pot of water to a boil and cook the spaghetti until just undercooked (it will finish cooking in the pan).
While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and saute the garlic for about a minute until lightly browned (being careful not to let it get too dark).
Add the anchovy paste and dissolve into the oil (about 30 seconds).
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook your pasta until just undercooked.
While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and saute the garlic for about a minute until lightly browned (being careful not to let it get too dark).
Add the anchovy paste and dissolve into the oil (about 30 seconds)
Add the tomatoes red pepper flakes, and herbs. stir to combine.
Reserve a half cup of pasta water before draining. Drain the pasta, add it to the sauce along with the olives and capers.
Cook until the pasta is cooked, adding pasta water as needed to loosen.
Etymology. Because puttana means roughly 'whor*' or 'prostitute' and puttanesca is an adjective derived from that word, the dish may have been invented in one of many bordellos in the Naples working-class neighbourhood of Quartieri Spagnoli as a quick meal taken between servicing clients.
Puttanesca sauce is a sweetly simple sauce made from a delicious combination of tomatoes, black olives, capers, anchovies, onions, garlic, and Italian herbs. The recipe is easy to make, not requiring too much cooking time while still developing a spicy and fragrant taste.
It is an easy sauce, briefly cooked, and is very fragrant and spicy. Puttanesca translates as “in the style of the whor*.” The name derives from the Italian word puttana which means whor*. Puttana in turn arises from the Latin word putida which means stinking.
What's so special about puttanesca sauce? While I love the added briny flavors from kalamata olives and capers in this tomato-based pasta sauce, I consider anchovies to be the secret ingredient. They're what distinguishes puttanesca from any other red sauce you may be familiar with.
Here's the gist: the two ways Italians say “sauce” in Italian are salsa and/or sugo. Both words translate as “sauce” but never as “gravy.” Ragù doesn't even translate as “gravy” but comes close enough since it involves meat which is what people really mean when they say “gravy” (my personal opinion).
What Can I Use Instead Of Anchovy In Puttanesca? There really is no perfect substitute for the anchovies in Puttanesca sauce, but you can use miso paste, fish sauce or even just a little extra salt. Some say seaweed makes for an excellent vegan substitute.
You are very likely to come across this dish in Italy, especially in the Southern regions. It is typically made of tomatoes, black olives, capers, and anchovies along with garlic and sometimes a little bit of red chili pepper to add some spice. Different versions eliminate anchovies or call for other ingredients.
The taste of a caper is reminiscent of the lemony tang and brininess of green olives, but with a smack of floral tartness all their own. Because they're packed in brine, capers also have a very salty, savory flavor profile.
In Italian cooking, anchovies are extremely common. They don't add so much of a "fishy" taste as much as a salty, umami punch of flavor. For that, I always keep anchovy paste, oil or filets on hand to give pasta dishes like this a boost of flavor.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca tastes like the most bold and intense tomato sauce you've ever tried. In addition two two kinds of tomatoes (paste and peeled whole canned), there are capers, anchovies, olives, and peppers going on as well. It is briny and acidic, garlicky and so very flavorful.
For a milder yet flavorful option, Salsa al Pomodoro is a timeless classic. Complexity of Flavors: Salsa alla Puttanesca and Salsa all'Amatriciana offer intricate flavor profiles. Choose Puttanesca for a briny, Mediterranean experience, and Amatriciana for a Roman-inspired umami-rich delight.
Pairing puttanesca sauce with rustic Italian reds such as Primitivo or Nero d'Avola would support the “if it grows together it goes together” philosophy. Just keep in mind that the peppery heat of the dish will be amplified by higher alcohol wines.
This Sardine Puttanesca recipe from the authors of Rustle Up, Rhiannon Batten and Laura Rowe, is a twist on the classic umami-flavoured Italian dish of puttanesca, and uses sardines in place of anchovies, and fusilli in place of spaghetti, for a meatier bite.
Vodka sauce was definitively invented in by Armando Mei for his midtown restaurant Fontana di Trevi, debuting on the menu in 1967. Mei called his penne alla vodka, as the dish most often known as in the United States. It was a combination off tomatoes, vodka, and cream.
The “spaghetti and meetballs”, as americans know it, does not exist in Italy. However it is not uncommon in southern Italy to eat “spaghetti e polpette”. No gigantic meatballs, though, but a lot of little, soft meatballs in Italian ragù.
Etymology. In Italian, maccheroni refers to elongated pasta, not necessarily in tubular form. This general meaning is still retained outside Rome and in different languages which borrowed the word.
Since the name is derived from carbonaro ( lit.'charcoal burner'), some people believe the dish was first made as a hearty meal for Italian charcoal workers. In parts of the United States, this etymology gave rise to the term coal miner's spaghetti.
Introduction: My name is Barbera Armstrong, I am a lovely, delightful, cooperative, funny, enchanting, vivacious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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