Puttanesca Pasta Nada

By Dwight Garner

Updated June 13, 2024

Puttanesca Pasta Nada
Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
Total Time
30 minutes
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Rating
5(686)
Comments
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“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

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
686 user ratings
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Comments

N.M.P.

When I was 18, I worked at a coffee shop owned by two Italian men. They taught me how to make a killer espresso, and how to smoke cigarettes while reading the NY Times and listening to Leonard Cohen or the Stones. They also taught me what "Puttanesca" meant. They explained that after a long night of hard work, a woman would take whatever she could find in her Italian kitchen (the staples) and make a hearty dinner. 1. "Pedigree" refers to people & animals, not pasta. 2. Sex work is work.

Judy S.

My favorite instant pasta meal with three ingredients. Tuna in olive oil, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, bowtie pasta. Just heat the tuna with its oil and artichoke hearts with all their oil. Toss with pasta. You can add good olives, sundried tomatoes, fresh herbs, etc. Or not.

Eileen

This is my 20 minute dinner: garlic, anchovy, raisins, capers, olives, sometimes artichoke hearts, a little caper brine. I'm making myself hungry.

Michael

This may be one of the most versatile recipes in the NYT's vast repository, at least from my somewhat self-aborded perspective. All the ingredients are either in my refrigerator or in my pantry. Boiling the pasta water takes most of the time. Once that is done, the rest is quick with outstanding results. A+

Carol

I made this with capers, garlic, anchovies, tuna and sun-dried tomatoes. It was yummy but next time I will skip the tomatoes and add some pepper flakes for some heat.

Madi

Have made this recipe several times. Tonight, I added a jar of marinated artichokes after draining them. Superb addition to dry cured olives, capers, garlic, tuna, fresh parsley, marjorem and oregano. I have been searching out and buying high end canned tuna in oil. Tonight's tuna came from Spain and did not disappoint!

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