By Dwight Garner
Updated June 14, 2024
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- 4(44)
- Notes
- Read community notes
“In normal life, ‘simplicity’ is synonymous with ‘easy to do,’” Bill Buford wrote in “Heat,” his 2006 book, “but when a chef uses the word, it means ‘take a lifetime to learn.’” That’s true much of the time. But if you take care, a dish as simple as pasta with finely chopped black olives and anchovies can have a chef-like impact with minimum learning and minimum fuss. This dish resets your taste buds. No fancy shopping needed.
Featured in: Pasta Nada: The Culinary Art of Making Something From Nothing
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Ingredients
Yield:As many servings as you want
- Pasta
- Salt
- Any combination of anchovies, capers, tuna, black olives, garlic and tomatoes
- Olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- Any combination of fresh herbs, such as basil, parsley, sage or oregano
- Freshly grated Parmesan
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Cook pasta in salted water to make a lo-fi variation on the theme of puttanesca. Instead of employing each of the classic ingredients above, try just, let’s say, black olives and anchovies. Or, use just finely minced garlic and a few capers. Or good canned tuna and tomatoes. These flavors cry out to be tested in variations.
Step
2
Heat the ingredients of your choice in olive oil and toss in the cooked pasta with some of its cooking liquid. Season with salt and pepper and top with herbs and Parmesan.
Ratings
4
out of 5
44
user ratings
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Bob
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!
Eileen
This is my 20 minute dinner: garlic, anchovy, raisins, capers, olives, sometimes artichoke hearts, a little caper brine. I'm making myself hungry.
Tom Hayden
Never just drain a can of tuna and throw the juice away. It’s a savory bonanza!
Ken
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
Barbara Olson
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.
John S
You do know what " puttaneca" means and refers to in Italian, right? It's a great dish but with a checkered pedigree.
Jen M
I HATE OLIVES & find them to be absolutely repulsive! Is there anything I can substitute for them in this dish?!
mw
try it with broccoli florets and thin sliced on the bias stems added to pasta cooking water until it brightens...
Eileen
This is my 20 minute dinner: garlic, anchovy, raisins, capers, olives, sometimes artichoke hearts, a little caper brine. I'm making myself hungry.
Margaret
Raisins? Convince me.
Tom Hayden
Never just drain a can of tuna and throw the juice away. It’s a savory bonanza!
Bob
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!
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