Puttanesca Pasta Nada Recipe (2024)

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.

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.

This is my 20 minute dinner: garlic, anchovy, raisins, capers, olives, sometimes artichoke hearts, a little caper brine. I'm making myself hungry.

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!

Never just drain a can of tuna and throw the juice away. It’s a savory bonanza!

Looks delectable… You’re right about keeping things simple… I’m Italian ..Sono ItalianoCooking 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Raisins? Convince me.

you are overthinking it :)

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.

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!

Tinned sardines also work

If this isn't five star, we don't know what is! Our version includes everything! Lots of good olive oil flavored with anchovies, chopped capers, minced garlic and red pepper flake. Then add any and all kinds of olives, sun-dried tomatoes (we think they are better than fresh for this dish,) a small can of Italian tuna, pine nuts (we like them plumped up rather than toasted,) salt, pepper and fresh or dried herbs. Toss with pasta and top with parmesan. It just doesn't get any better!

Black olives?! Why the pic with kalamatas?

Married into a family who make a dish we called "pasta Malina" or "Malika": saute a bunch of garlic in olive oil. Toss in a bunch of bread crumbs, red pepper flake, grinds of salt & pepper, Italian seasonings. Toss together with cooked spaghetti & Parm. Come to find out the correct name is Mollica, Mollicata, or Muddica.

I thought the sauce mix had to sit in the sun for a few hours. I mix together olive oil, anchovy paste, olives, garlic, tomatoes, and torn fresh basil, then cover the bowl with saran wrap and let it sit in the sun for ~5 hours. The word Puttanesca is derived from the Italian word for whor*. It is said the dish requires so little active cooking time, the ladies had more time for their clients. Or is it that the fragrant mix on the window sill lured clients to their rooms. Whatever. It's delicious

If you want to be authentic, I would argue that you should avoid FRESH herbs and use dried herbs. Puttanesca is named for prostitute businesses that would keep a pot of this simple, strong-flavoured, long-lasting pasta on the back burner where employees could help themselves to a meal throughout the day or night. So, it needed to be made with ingredients that wouldn't overcook or get nasty over this longish period.

First day I combined Kalamata olives, anchovies, fresh basil, black pepper, garlic and the olive oil from the anchovies with organic whole wheat spaghetti, topped with finely shredded Parmesan. Good but not great. So I added more olives to the leftovers along with capers, tomato paste and a Roma tomato. Ah, that was it! So good it was hard to stop eating it.

Great idea to encourage people to improvise. But please don't call it "puttanesca" which almost by definition includes tomatoes.

THIS is how more recipes should read! Simple, adaptable ingredients in my pantry!

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!

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 RCan’t wait to add tomato!

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!

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.

Christine, I love anchovies but I have very fine tuned anchovy radar, as well. Glad you found a recipe to try!

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.

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."