Speedy Pasta Puttanesca – this Italian dish is simply PACKED with flavour and on the table in just 25 minutes! This delicious puttanesca sauce with tomatoes, olives, capers and herbs is perfect for spicing up your weekday meals. 

Looking for more Italian recipes? Give my Spaghetti Carbonara a go!

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This post is in collaboration with Hello Fresh

If you love tasty, healthy and EASY pasta dishes then you must add this Puttanesca recipe to your family meals.

All you need is a handful of store cupboard ingredients and an authentic Italian marvel can be on your table. What more can you ask for?

CHEEKY PASTA PUTTANESCA

Like many Italian recipes, this one comes with a spicy little backstory 🙂 Legend has it that this dish was invented in Naples by Sandro Petti when a group of hungry customers demanded a meal just as he was closing up.

The dish is also known as ‘aulive and chiapparielle’ (olives and capers pasta) – while regional variations have also added salted anchovies for even more flavour! Anchovy pasta? Yes, believe me, it is AMAZING.

You can use chopped anchovies or anchovy paste in this recipe – don’t worry, it will NOT make your sauce taste “fishy”, but it DOES add tons of salty goodness and flavour! 

HOW DO YOU MAKE PASTA PUTTANESCA?

I am using a recipe from Hello Fresh as the basis for my puttanesca recipe. Hello Fresh is such a great way to discover amazing new dishes – just take a look at their most popular recipes!

All you have to do is simply select your recipes and how many servings you need and you will be sent a box with fresh quality ingredients all measured out. Easy peasy!

Puttanesca sauce starts with onions and red chili flakes, sauteed in olive oil until softened. 

Plenty of minced garlic, anchovies, olives and capers get added into the sauce along with tinned tomatoes and the sauce simmers until thickened. 

I like to add a little of the pasta cooking water to my puttanesca sauce – it makes it silkier thank yummier thanks to the starch from the pasta.

Toss in your favourite pasta – cooked till al dente – until it is well coated in the sauce.

Garnish with plenty of chopped parsley and a little grated Pecorino or Parmesan and you have an amazing meal in about 20 minutes! Serve with a green salad and some crusty bread (try my No Knead Bread)!

THE PERFECT PUTTANESCA SAUCE

• Use good quality tinned tomatoes for this recipe – Italian if you can find them. Add a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes are very acidic.
• Gaeta olives are used in authentic Puttanesca recipes, but really any type of olives will do just as well. 
• Mini capers (also known as Non Pareilles) are perfect for this recipe. 
• You can use any type of pasta for this recipe – Spaghetti Puttanesca is most common, here I have used wholemeal penne for some added fibre. Linguine and Angel Hair pasta are also delicious!
• Season your sauce at the end – since the olives, capers and anchovies are all quite salty you might not need to add any additional salt!

PUTTANESCA VARIATIONS

• Take a look at my Chicken Puttanesca served with zoodles for a low carb version.
• Vegetarian Puttanesca: simply leave out the anchovies (and cheese for a vegan version).
• Add sliced chicken, prawns etc for some extra protein, if you like.

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