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I loooove pasta. Hopefully you love pasta too. 🙂 I’m not averse to using ready made pasta sauces. In fact, I use them quite often. However, when you have an easy recipe at your disposal to help you create a dish worthy of a fine Italian restaurant, then there’s no reason not to make your own sauce! I’m stepping out boldly to say, that this is one of those recipes. 🙂
What is Puttanesca Sauce?
Pasta Puttanesca is an Italian dish from Naples. The sauce on its own is called puttanesca sauce. It typically consists of tomatoes, capers, olives, and garlic. However in the Lazio region, which is just north of Naples, anchovies are usually added. Since I really like anchovies, I decided to make the version that is popular in Lazio. 🙂 I also added some chilis to spice things up!!
San Marzano Tomatoes
The ONLY tomatoes to use in this dish are San Marzano tomatoes. I cannot source fresh San Marzano tomatoes where I live, so I used canned San Marzano tomatoes by Cento. San Marzano’s are considered one of the world’s BEST tomatoes! So only San Marzano’s will do. 🙂
These tomatoes are actually grown in the region of Mount Vesuvius. Here, the soil is extremely fertile which helps to produce this most delicious of tomatoes. So we start with the best tomatoes for our Spicy Pasta Puttanesca and you know we can’t go wrong!
The Method to Make Spicy Pasta Puttanesca
The method to make Spicy Pasta Puttanesca cannot be more simple! After frying minced garlic and chilis in some olive oil, you will add anchovies and stir until they melt into the olive oil. After that, add the San Marzano tomatoes. You will notice that the tomatoes are whole, so take a little time to break them up with your wooden spoon or cooking utensils. Then add roughly chopped olives and capers. Stir to incorporate and then simmer until the sauce is condensed.
Stir cooked pasta (I used spaghetti once and penne another time) into your puttanesca sauce and guess what? You’ll be in PASTA HEAVEN!!!
Honestly, this is one of the simplest and most delicious pasta dishes I have ever made. The use of San Marzano tomatoes really elevates this dish into something very special.
I truly felt that I could have been dining in an Italian Ristorante while dining on this dish. My hope is that you will feel that way too. 🙂
Please give this a try and let me know what you think!
Other Recipes You May Enjoy!
Linguine With Delicious Parsley Pesto
Linguine With Pancetta and Peas
San Marzano Tomatoes – 1,000 Foods to Eat Project
San Marzano tomatoes are one of the foods in my 1,000 Foods to Eat Project! Get the scoop on delicious San Marzano tomatoes here!
For a list of the foods tried so far, please visit the 1,000 Foods to Eat Project Page.
If you’d like to come along on this food journey with me, please sign up to get the latest recipes and inspiration for you to expand your food comfort zone! It’s an incredible journey, please join me by signing up here. 🙂
Cheers!
Grace
Spicy Pasta Puttanesca
Ingredients
- 16 oz spaghetti can also sub penne if you like
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 3 Thai chilis minced
- 28 oz San Marzano Tomatoes
- 5 anchovies
- 4 tbsp capers
- 3/4 cup black olives roughly chopped
- Italian parsley for garnish
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mince the garlic and chilis. Heat up the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium. Once hot, add the minced garlic and chilis and stir for a minute. Add the anchovies and stir until they have melted.
- Add the tomatoes (break up with your wooden spoon), capers, and olives. Bring to the boil. Then allow to simmer until the sauce has thickened around 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the pasta directions.
- Once the pasta is cooked and drained, add the thickened puttanesca sauce to the pasta and stir to incorporate. Add salt and pepper to taste, then garnish with Italian parsley (of course!). 🙂
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