Super Easy Pasta Puttanesca Recipe
Pasta puttanesca is a pungent umami laden affair that should be a go-to meal for anybody that loves quick and easy meals made from store cupboard items (and anchovies).
Equipment
- Big pot for cooking pasta
- Heavy based pot to make the sauce
- Sieve
- Grater
Ingredients
- salt
- 5 oz - 140 gr pasta of choice, I'm a linguine girl myself
- 1 T - 15 ml olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 3 medium shallots finely chopped
- 6 filets anchovies finely chopped
- 14 oz - 400 gr tomatoes one tin - I prefer peeled plum tomatoes myself
- 1 T - 20 gr tomato puree
- 1/2 T - 7 ml Balsamic vinegar
- 1 t - 5 gr sugar
- 2 T - 40 gr capers less or more to taste, roughly chopped olives also work
- 1/2 c - 60 gr Parmesan grated
- 1 pinch salt more or less to taste
- black pepper as much as you like, freshly ground is best
- 7 oz - 213 gr tinned salmon or tuna 1 tin drained, optional - please look for ASC- or MSC-certification
Instructions
- Bring some heavily salted water to the boil in a large pot.
- Heat 1 T - 15 ml of olive oil in a heavy based pot and fry off the finely chopped 4 cloves of garlic and 3 shallots until they become translucent. Avoid burning by stirring constantly and lowering the heat if necessary.
- Once the onions and garlic have started to become translucent, add 6 finely chopped anchovy filets and stir until they begin to break down.
- Dump in your 14 oz - 400 gr tin of tomatoes and 1 T - 20 gr tomato paste and let sit at a soft bubble for until reduced by about half. This should take 15-30 minutes or so.
- Now is the time to dump 5 oz - 140 gr of pasta into the salted boiling water and cook it according to the instructions on the packet. I like to cook the pasta slightly under and reduce the cooking time by 1 minute to ensure a little bit of bite. Be sure to reduce the heat a little so it doesn't boil over.
- After the sauce has been reduced down, add 1/2 T - 7 ml of balsamic vinegar and 1 t - 5 gr of sugar, stir and reduce down further, for a minute or 2.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper. Because of the salt contents from the anchovies I generally find this doesn't need a lot of salt, if any.
- Stir in 2 T - 40 gr of capers and drained 7 oz - 213 gr tin of tuna (if using).
- Drain the pasta, mix with the sauce and serve with a good helping of freshly grated Parmesan and black pepper.
Notes
This sauce keeps for about 3 months in the freezer, double-up the recipe if you have the time and store some in the freezer so you always have a quick meal at the ready.