Pasta Puttanesca

Pasta puttanesca offers a break from the classic spaghetti and meatball dinner. Ready in less than 40 minutes, this sauce featuring olives, capers, and anchovies is bursting with flavor.

If you’re not familiar with puttanesca (poo-tuh-nes-kuh) sauce, it’s similar to marinara sauce, but with a lot more flavor and shorter cooking time. A classic puttanesca recipe typically combines tomatoes, garlic, olives, capers, anchovies, crushed red pepper, oregano, and parsley quickly sautéed in olive oil. The result is an incredibly vibrant, tangy, briny sauce for pasta.

While the origins of this sauce are disputed, one interesting story focuses on the actual meaning of the word puttanesca. In Italian, puttanesca translates to, “in the style of the prostitute.” One theory suggests that “ladies of the evening” invented this intensely aromatic sauce to entice and attract potential clients. No matter the origin, what I love about this sauce is how quickly it comes together, making it a perfect option for busy weeknight dinners. Made mostly from pantry staples, the sauce is ready in under 40 minutes.

Just a handful of ingredients went into this puttanesca sauce — canned whole tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic, kalamata olives, capers, anchovy paste, sugar, salt, dried oregano, red pepper flakes, fresh basil, and olive oil.

When making puttanesca sauce, I prefer the texture of canned whole peeled tomatoes over canned diced tomatoes. Canned whole and diced tomatoes typically contain the additive calcium chloride. It’s a salt, like sodium chloride, only it contains the mineral calcium. Calcium chloride is often referred to as a firming agent because it keeps foods like canned vegetables and fruits firm. It’s the reason pickles stay crisp and diced tomatoes hold their shape.

Since diced tomatoes have a greater surface area, they’re exposed to more of the calcium chloride during the canning process. That’s why canned diced tomatoes stay rather firm, even during cooking. This is great in a dish where you want distinct pieces of tomato, but that’s not what I’m looking for in a puttanesca sauce. Canned whole tomatoes, crushed by hand, offer the flexibility to have some tomato pieces that almost dissolve into the sauce, while other pieces stay a bit chunky. The variation in tomato pieces gives a really nice texture to the sauce. If you’d prefer to skip crushing the whole tomatoes by hand, just use canned crushed tomatoes instead. And, if you’re watching your sodium intake, look for no-added-salt canned whole or crushed tomatoes.

Finished puttanesca sauce made with whole, peeled canned tomatoes crushed by hand.

To your health,

Darlene

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PASTA PUTTANESCA

Yield: 6 servings 

Serving Size: 1/2 cup sauce over 1 cup cooked spaghetti topped with 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

Prep: 15 minutes

Ready: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/2 cup finely diced onion

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 3 tablespoons tomato paste

• 1/3 cup whole, pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped

• 3 tablespoons capers

• 1 teaspoon anchovy paste or 2 to 3 anchovy fillets

• 1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes or crushed tomatoes

• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

• 9 ounces dry spaghetti, whole-wheat preferred

• 3/8 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil

• 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium-low heat and sauté onion and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes or until onions soften. Add oregano and red pepper flakes and continue to sauté 30 seconds, allowing spices to bloom. Add tomato paste, olives, capers, and anchovy paste and sauté an additional 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Crush tomatoes by hand into bite-size pieces (or roughly chop). Add tomatoes, along with juices from can, and sugar to saucepan. Reduce heat to low and allow sauce to gently simmer for 10 minutes. While sauce is simmering, cook spaghetti according to package directions, omitting salt if called for.

3. Remove puttanesca sauce from heat. Add salt and basil and stir to combine. Drain cooked pasta. One serving consists of 1 cup cooked spaghetti topped with a 1/2 cup puttanesca sauce and 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese.

Nutrition Information per Serving (nutrition information reflects using whole-wheat spaghetti)

273 Calories, 10 g Total fat, 2 g Saturated fat, 0 g Trans fat, 4 mg Cholesterol, 640 mg Sodium, 41 g Total carbohydrate, 7 g Dietary fiber, 6 g Total sugars, 1 g Added sugars, 10 g Protein, 0 mcg (0%) Vitamin D, 121 mg (10%) Calcium, 3 mg (15%) Iron, 472 mg (10%) Potassium

© 2023 RECIPES MADE HEALTHY BY DARLENE ZIMMERMAN, MS, RD LLC

Pasta Puttanesca

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