Pasta alla
Puttanesca
Neapolitan tomato, olive & caper pasta
Tomatoes, dark olives, capers and garlic make a quick, briny sauce that clings to spaghetti, with a little chili and parsley.
Tomato, dark olives & a fresh-herb garnishOlives and capers,
a Neapolitan pantry sauce.
Pasta alla puttanesca combines tomatoes with dark olives, capers and garlic. The sauce is chunky and savory, with enough sharpness from the capers to stand out against the pasta. In Naples, the olive-and-caper pairing is also described as aulive e chiapparielle.
Versions differ, including Roman preparations with anchovies. The home recipe here chooses the Neapolitan olive-and-caper version without fish, using canned tomatoes and pitted olives. It is a quick first course, finished by tossing the pasta in the sauce. The tomatoes stay lightly chunky, with the olives and capers visible among the strands.
Explore by food: Pasta
Let’s make pasta alla puttanesca.
Four first-course portions of the olive-and-caper version without anchovies. This recipe uses parsley; the photograph shows a mixed-herb garnish.
Four first-course portions, without anchovies.
The 30-minute cooking allowance is elapsed time with the sauce and pasta cooked alongside each other.
What you’ll need
- 360 gspaghetti
- 500 gcanned peeled tomatoes, crushed
- 100 gpitted dark olives, drained and halved
- 25 gcapers in brine, drained and rinsed
- 2garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 45 mlextra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ tspdried chili flakes
- 2 tbspchopped parsley
- 4 lwater, for pasta
- 20 gcoarse salt, for the pasta water
- to tastefine salt
The sauce simmers while the pasta water heats and the spaghetti cooks. Rinsing brined capers and using lightly salted pasta water helps manage salt from the olives and capers.
How to make it
- 01
Start the water
Bring the 4 l water to a boil in a large pot and add coarse salt.
- 02
Build the sauce
While water heats, warm oil, garlic and chili in a wide pan over medium-low heat for 2 minutes, without darkening the garlic. Add tomatoes, olives and capers. Simmer uncovered for 15–20 minutes until the tomatoes have softened into a chunky sauce. Taste before adding fine salt.
- 03
Cook the spaghetti
Cook pasta for 1 minute less than its packet time, checking for a firm center. Reserve 250 ml cooking water before draining.
- 04
Finish in the pan
Add spaghetti to the sauce with 60 ml reserved water. Toss over medium heat for 1–2 minutes until cooked with a slight bite and evenly coated. Add more reserved water in small splashes if needed. Fold in parsley and serve immediately.
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