Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
Spaghetti alla puttanesca (Italian: "whore's spaghetti") is a spicy, tangy and somewhat salty Italian pasta dish.
20 min · serves 6
Ingredients
- 600 grams (21 ounces) uncooked spaghetti
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 115 grams (4 ounces) unsalted anchovy fillets, crushed into a paste (omit anchovies for Neapolitan version)
- 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 200 grams (7 ounces) black olives, pitted and chopped
- 2 tablespoons salted capers, washed well and coarsely chopped
- 1–3 small dried chile peppers, chopped (optional)
- 900 grams (roughly 2 pounds) plum tomatoes, peeled and puréed
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- Salt to taste
Steps
- Put the olive oil, garlic, and anchovy paste in a skillet over medium heat.
- Before the garlic browns, add the olives, capers, tomato sauce, and chile peppers.
- Add 2–3 pinches of salt, mixing over high heat. Then lower the heat and allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in salted water (at least 4 quarts of water per pound of spaghetti being cooked). Strain it when it's al dente.
- Place pasta in a large serving bowl, and coat it with sauce. Then, sprinkle it with chopped parsley.
- Mix and serve hot.
More recipes with pasta, anchovies, garlic, olives, capers, tomatoes or parsley
Adapted from “Spaghetti alla Puttanesca” in the Wikibooks Cookbook by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for this site; this page's recipe text is shared under the same license.