Puttanesca Sauce

Course: pasta

Cuisine: Italian, Italian American

Keyword: puttanesca, puttanesca sauce, shrimp puttanesca

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 20

Servings: servings

Calories: 191kcal

Author: Colleen Kennedy

This easy to make Puttanesca Sauce recipe is bursting with flavors. Enjoy it as is over pasta or make Shrimp Puttanesca. If you like pasta sauces, this one needs to be one you make often.

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Ingredients

3 TBS olive oil
½ cup chopped onion
1 large fresh jalapeno, finely chopped (I used the seeds for heat as well)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 TBS anchovy paste or flat anchovies 4-6
¾ cup haled or chopped black olives or kalamata olives
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup capers
28 oz whole or diced tomatoes IF you are not a fan of tomato chunks, use crushed tomatoes.
1 teaspoon Kosher salt more or less
1 teaspoon sugar more or less

Instructions

In a good sized pot, pour in the olive oil and set over medium heat.
Add in the onions and jalapeno (if using) and sauté for a few minutes. Just till onions become a little translucent (not browned).
Add in the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, moving it around for about 90 seconds)
Add in anchovies (or anchovy paste) and mash them a bit with the back of a spoon or spatula, breaking them up (they will end up melting into the sauce)
Add in the olives and capers, tomatoes, sugar (if adding), salt (if adding) and parsley. Stir till incorporated.
***If you are making Shrimp Puttanesca, while sauce simmers grab a frying pan and place 2 TBS oil in it. Once its hot, add in a clove of garlic and your shrimp. Season with S&P and sauté just until shrimp is cooked through. Add shrimp to the pot of sauce just as you take it off of them heat to allow flavors to marry, allow it to sit, stirring occasionally for 5 or more minutes.,
Bring to a simmer and simmer for 15-20 minutes on low heat. Taste and adjust seasoning. If you have tome for sauce to sit a bit, flavors will deepen.
Remove from heat and either add pasta to the pot and toss well or top pasta with the sauce.

Notes

Colleens Notes:

Jalapenos are not typical in Puttanesca sauce. IF you like a little heat in your food, add in one (of course always test the flavor and heat of it before adding it in as jalapenos can range from mild to seriously hot). I came across the addition of jalapenos to Puttanesca in one of Jim Fobel's Cookbooks when I was a young cook. Jim was an amazing cookbook author and food writer. He a protégé of James Beard and wrote recipes and articles often for Family Circle, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, and Cooking Light magazines. He is know for amazing recipes with bold flavors.

Sometimes I also add in green olives as pictured here. Up to you which kind or kinds of olives you add.

If salt is an issue, taste and adjust the sauce before adding an any salt as the olives and capers themselves are salty.

Puttanesca Sauce Recipe is said to have come from Naples Italy. Depending on where in Italy you may have it, it ingredients will vary.

Nutritional information does not include the pasta you choose to use.

Nutrition