Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca, a classic Italian pasta dish with an interesting history and delicious ingredients like anchovies, capers, and olives. It’s easy to make, packs in so much flavor, and is the perfect addition to your dinner menu!
Why you should make this spaghetti alla puttanesca:
- It only takes 30 minutes to make – The sauce takes 15-20 minutes to cook, so it makes for a perfect weeknight dinner!
- It uses simple ingredients – Tomato passata, anchovies, capers and olives – the ingeredients may be simple (you may already have most of them on hand!) but the dish definitely doesn’t lack any falvor.
- It’s tasty – The anchovies add tons of flavor, and the capers and olives make the dish briny. All of these flavors combined makes for one amazing dish!
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🍝 What does puttanesca mean?
Puttanesca means “the ladies of the night pasta.” ‘Puttana’ in Italian means prostitute. There are a few different theories about how the dish got its name.
👩🏻🍳 History of the dish
It is unclear exactly how puttanesca originated, but perhaps the most believable origin is that it was created in Ischia around 1950 by a restaurant co-owner, Sandro Petti. The story is that Petti was asked to make ‘una puttanata qualsiasi’ which means “any rubbish/garbage” after some customers arrived after they were out of many ingredients. Apparently, the customers loved the dish that Petti made from what he had left in the kitchen, and it ended up on the menu as “spaghetti all puttanesca.”
The other potential origin is that it was made by a brothel owner in the Spanish quarter of Naples. It is said that he may have used the dish’s aroma to bring people into his business.
Another idea is that the dish was named because of its easy, low cost ingredients which may have been the easiest thing for prostitutes to prepare.
🌶 Versions of puttanesca
There are two main versions of puttanesca, one that originated in Campania and another that comes from Lazio. Here are the main differences between the two:
- Campania Version: Main ingredients include fresh peeled tomatoes, capers, black olives, garlic, and oregano. In some recipes, peperoncino is used as well.
- Lazio Version: The oregano is replaced with parsley and anchovies. Green olives are sometimes used instead of black olives. This is the version that I used for this puttanesca recipe!
Both versions of puttanesca are very popular, easy to make, and flavorful!
🍅 Ingredients you’ll need
- Spaghetti: the type of pasta used in authentic puttanesca. You’ll cook it until al dente, then combine with the puttanesca sauce.
- Olive oil: the traditional cooking oil used to cook veggies and anchovies in puttanesca.
- Garlic cloves: cooked in olive oil until fragrant, adds flavor to the sauce.
- Chili flakes: adds a little spice to the dish.
- Anchovy filets: a small, oily fish that has a rich, umami flavor and adds complexity to puttanesca. In my opinion, anchovies are essential to the dish!
- Capers: immature flower buds of the caper bush plant, which is cultivated in Italy. They are often pickled and have a salty, lemony taste that is simliar to olives.
- Gaeta olives: some Lazio versions of puttanesca use green olives, but we used Gaeta olives which are black .
- Tomatoes: should be crushed and strained for puttanesca.
- Parsley: adds flavor and freshness to the recipe. Note that traditional puttanesca does not use basil, so don’t use that if you want to keep it authentic!
- Salt and pepper: sprinkled in throughout the recipe for extra flavor.
📋 How to make spaghetti alla puttanesca – step by step
In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add garlic cloves and chili flakes and cook until garlic is fragrant. In the mean time, bring a pot of water to boil.
Add the anchovies to the pan, and let them melt into the olive oil. Remove the garlic cloves. Add the capers and olives.
Add the tomatoes to the pan, along with some water from the jar (about 1/4 cup). Let the sauce simmer for 15-20 minutes.
When sauce is almost ready, add pasta to boiling salted water and cook until al dente.
Add salt to the sauce only if necessary (taste it to see), and stir parsley into the sauce.
Add pasta to the pan along with a bit of pasta water and mix until sauce is well-incorporated and mostly absorbed, a few minutes.
Plate and top with more parsley. Enjoy!
🍽 How to serve
Serve pasta alla puttanesca on a plate and enjoy as a dinner meal!
Note: Italians do not usually mix seafood and cheese, so this dish should not be served with parmigiano. You can top it with minced parsley isntead. Also, do not use basil (only parsley!)
📖 FAQ
Puttanesca means “the ladies of the night pasta” or “prostitute’s spaghetti.”
Anchovies do not add a fishy flavor to this dish. Instead, they give it a delicious umami, savory flavor.
Puttanesca combines many healthy ingredients, including tomatoes and garlic. The anchovies, olives, and olive oil are a source of healthy fats. It can be a healthy recipe to include in your diet. However, olives and capers can be high in salt, which you should be cautious of if you’re on a low-sodium diet. To make it more nutritious, you can use whole-grain spaghetti.
Puttanesca combines a variety of sweet and savory ingredients, with a sauce that is intensely flavored and briny from the olives and capers. When you eat puttanesca, you’ll get notes of spice and umami if you make it with anchovies.
Puttanesca is not vegan if you make it with anchovies. The Campania version does not include anchovies, which would be vegan-friendly. Note that if you eliminate the anchovies form this recipe, the flavor will not be the same!
💭 Top tips
- Even if you don’t like anchovies, try adding them to this dish! It will not make the end result taste “fishy.” Instead it gives the whole dish a savory umami flavor.
- You may not need to add salt to this dish because of the addition of anchovies. Always taste the sauce to see if it needs any salt.
- This recipe mentions to remove the garlic cloves to give a subtle garlic flavor (this is most commonly the way garlic is used in Italian cooking), but if you’d like a stronger garlic flavor, feel free to shop up the garlic and leave it in.
- Gaeta olives are traditionally used in this dish, which are similar to Kalamata olives. If you can’t find Gaeta, you can use Kalamata, or any type of olive. Green olives will work well too.
- Between salting the pasta water, the salty olives, capers and anchovies, you will have to add very little salt to this dish.
- We recommend using an unsalted passata in this dish. If the passata you’re using already has salt added, the final dish will most likely be too salty, given the salt content in the other ingredients (olives, capers, anchovies)
♨️ More authentic Italian recipes
Try out my other Roman pasta recipes:
Recipe
Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca
Spaghetti all puttanesca, a classic Italian pasta dish with an interesting history and delicious ingredients like anchovies, capers, and olives. It's easy to make, packs in so much flavor, and is the perfect addition to your dinner menu!
Ingredients
- 250 grams spaghetti
- 2 tbsp olive oli extra virgin
- 2 garlic cloves
- chili flakes to taste
- 4-5 anchovy filets can substitute 2 tsp anchovy paste
- 2 tbsp capers in brine rinsed, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup Gaeta olives pitted, roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 cups crushed strained tomatoes (passata)
- 3 tbsp fresh parsley minced
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
-
In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add garlic cloves and chili flakes and cook until garlic is fragrant. In the mean time, bring a pot of water to boil.
-
Add the anchovies to the pan, and let them melt into the olive oil. Remove the garlic cloves. Add the capers and olives.
-
Add the tomatoes to the pan, along with some water from the jar (about 1/4 cup). Let the sauce simmer for 15-20 minutes.
-
When sauce is almost ready, add pasta to boiling salted water and cook until al dente.
-
Add salt to the sauce only if necessary (taste it to see), and stir parsley into the sauce.
-
Add pasta to the pan along with a bit of pasta water and mix until sauce is well-incorporated and mostly absorbed, a few minutes.
-
Plate and top with more parsley. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- Even if you don’t like anchovies, try adding them to this dish! It will not make the end result taste “fishy.” Instead it gives the whole dish a savory umami flavor.
- You may not need to add salt to this dish because of the addition of anchovies. Always taste the sauce to see if it needs any salt.
- This recipe mentions to remove the garlic cloves to give a subtle garlic flavor (this is most commonly the way garlic is used in Italian cooking), but if you’d like a stronger garlic flavor, feel free to shop up the garlic and leave it in.
- Gaeta olives are traditionally used in this dish, which are similar to Kalamata olives. If you can’t find Gaeta, you can use Kalamata, or any type of olive. Green olives will work well too.
- Between salting the pasta water, the salty olives, capers and anchovies, you will have to add very little salt to this dish.
- We recommend using an unsalted passata in this dish. If the passata you’re using already has salt added, the final dish will most likely be too salty, given the salt content in the other ingredients (olives, capers, anchovies)
