Pasta alla puttanesca — tomato, olives, capers and anchovies
Serves 4 · Prep 5 min · Cook 15 min
Puttanesca is the Neapolitan genius for improvising: nothing bought for the occasion, everything from the pantry. A few black olives, some capers, two anchovies, a clove of garlic, a hit of chilli, tomato — and in fifteen minutes a bold, savoury, deep sauce that tastes of the south. An honest, robust dish with no fuss, ready in the time the pasta water comes to the boil.
For busy nights we put it in a jar without betraying it: our Madre Terra Sugo alla puttanesca keeps the ingredients that matter — olives, capers, anchovies — for a true puttanesca in ten minutes, the time it takes to cook the bronze-cut spaghetti from Libera Terra. This pasta is born in Puglia and Sicily, on hectares wrested from the mafia and handed to cooperatives. And because it's a pantry dish, we finish it with a drizzle of raw Madre Terra olive oil. Below, both routes: the full recipe, and the jar shortcut.
Ingredients
- 400 g Libera Terra spaghetti
- 3 tbsp Madre Terra extra virgin olive oil, plus a drizzle to serve
- 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 4 anchovy fillets in oil
- 1 pinch of red chilli (peperoncino), to taste
- 120 g black olives (Gaeta type), pitted
- 2 tbsp capers, rinsed
- 400 g chopped tomatoes or passata
- 1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- salt
Method
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil and salt with restraint — the olives, capers and anchovies are already salty. Cook the spaghetti al dente per the packet time.
- Meanwhile, warm the olive oil over low heat in a large pan. Add the sliced garlic, the anchovies and the chilli and let them melt for 2-3 minutes: the anchovies dissolve into the oil, the garlic turns pale gold — it must never brown.
- Add the olives and capers and let them sizzle for a minute to release their scent.
- Pour in the chopped tomatoes, salt very lightly, and simmer 8-10 minutes over medium heat, until the sauce thickens and glistens.
- Before draining, reserve a ladle of pasta water. Tip the drained spaghetti into the pan, add a little pasta water and toss vigorously for 1 minute to coat every strand.
- Add the chopped parsley, toss once more, and serve at once with a final drizzle of raw Madre Terra olive oil.
A light hand on the salt: salt the water and the sauce with restraint. Puttanesca takes its character from the olives, capers and anchovies — three already-salty ingredients that season the dish for you. Taste before adding anything; you adjust at the end, never before.
More: puttanesca is a dish for the shared table — the one you serve without warning that wins everyone over. You'll find it, among the flavours that make a meal Italian, in the La Cena Italiana gift box.
Discover the La Cena Italiana boxFrequently asked
Do you really need anchovies?
Yes — they're the secret of puttanesca. They dissolve completely in the hot oil and leave no fishy taste: just a savoury, rounded depth that carries the whole dish. Without them, the sauce stays flat. Our Madre Terra Sugo alla puttanesca already contains them, properly dosed.
Which olives to choose?
Plump, flavourful black olives, ideally Gaeta, pitted but whole or roughly chopped. Skip bland sliced olives: here the olive is a real ingredient, not a garnish.
Jar or homemade?
Both are real. The from-scratch recipe for the pleasure of the gesture on a night you have time; the Madre Terra Sugo alla puttanesca for busy nights — same olives, same capers, same anchovies, ready in the time the pasta cooks.
