Italian · openly licensed
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
Spaghetti alla puttanesca (Italian: "whore's spaghetti") is a spicy, tangy and somewhat salty Italian pasta dish. According to Annarita Cuomo, writer for Il Golfo, a newspaper serving the Italian islands of Ischia and Procida, sugo alla puttanesca was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of Rancio Fellone, a famous Is…
1 hour6–8Level 2
Gather first
Ingredients
- 600 grams (21 ounces) uncooked spaghetti
- 50 grams (1.75 ounces) butter
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 115 grams (4 ounces) unsalted anchovy fillets, crushed into a paste (omit anchovies for Neapolitan version)
- 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 200 grams (7 ounces) black olives, pitted and chopped
- 2 tablespoons salted capers, washed well and coarsely chopped
- 1–3 small dried chile peppers, chopped (optional)
- 900 grams (roughly 2 pounds) plum tomatoes, peeled and puréed
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- Salt to taste
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Make it
Method
- Put the butter, olive oil, garlic, and anchovy paste in a skillet over medium heat.
- Before the garlic browns, add the olives, capers, tomato sauce, and chili peppers.
- Add 2–3 pinches of salt, mixing over high heat.
- Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in salted water (at least 4 quarts of water per pound of spaghetti being cooked). Strain it when it's al dente.
- Place pasta in a large serving bowl, and coat it with sauce. Then, sprinkle it with chopped parsley.
- Mix and serve hot.