Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
Quick answer
- Total time
- 30 min
- Level
- Easy
- Servings
- 2 servings
- Ingredients
- 9
About this dish
Briny olives, salty capers and anchovies, and red pepper flakes all land in the same tomato sauce, which comes out bold and sharply defined after eight minutes of reduction.
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The spaghetti leaves the water a minute early and finishes in the sauce pan with reserved pasta water over high heat, where the starch binds everything to the strands and leaves no watery pool behind.
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1
Slice 4 garlic cloves thinly and halve 70 g black olives.
Crush 300 g canned whole tomatoes by hand, leaving only a few larger pieces so the sauce has texture without becoming chunky.
- 2
Boil 180 g spaghetti in salted water for 1 minute less than the package time.
Before draining, reserve 80 ml of pasta water because its starch will help the sauce cling to the noodles later.
- 3
Put 2 tbsp olive oil, the garlic, and 4 anchovy fillets in a pan over low heat for 2-3 minutes.
Stir and mash the anchovies until they dissolve, stopping before the garlic browns.
- 4
Add the crushed tomatoes, olives, 1.5 tbsp capers, and 0.5 tsp red pepper flakes.
Simmer over medium heat for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until excess liquid reduces and the oil starts to show at the edges.
- 5
Add the drained spaghetti and 80 ml reserved pasta water to the sauce pan.
Toss over high heat for 1-2 minutes, until the sauce coats the strands and no watery pool remains in the pan.
- 6
Turn off the heat and fold in 2 tbsp parsley.
Taste before adding any salt because the anchovies and capers are already salty, and add only a tiny amount if the sauce still tastes flat.
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