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This isn’t your usual tomato sauce! Puttanesca Sauce is brimming with flavor thanks to the addition of olives, capers, and anchovies.
When You Want to Amp up Your Pasta Sauce, Puttanesca!
The ingredients. The flavors. Puttanesca sauce holds a special place in my heart.
This sauce goes the extra mile to get your salivary glands going with it’s salty and tangy components. I mean, capers and olives and anchovies? Sign me up!
Rest assured that despite the seemingly complex flavor profile, puttanesca sauce is a cinch to bring together.
What Is Puttanesca Sauce?
Puttanesca sauce, which you’ll typically see on Italian menus as pasta or spaghetti alla puttanesca, originated in Naples. You know, the wonderful region that gave us pizza (thank you thank you thank you).
What sets this sauce apart from the rest are the poppin’ flavors. I’m talkin’ briny olives, capers, anchovies, and a kick from some chili peppers.
Salty and spicy, what’s not to love?
What’s also a little spicy is the history of how this sauce came to be. It’s said to have been invented in one of Naples’ bordellos as a quick meal eaten between servicing clients. To be blunt, the Italian word puttanesca translates to whore.
You’re welcome. Now let’s get cooking.
Ingredients Needed
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Anchovy fillets
- Chili flakes
- Tomato flakes
- Grape tomatoes
- Can of whole peeled Italian tomatoes
- Sugar
- Fresh basil
- Kalamata olives
- Castelvetrano olives
- Capers
- Butter
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper
- Fresh parsley
How to Make Puttanesca Sauce
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
- Add the anchovies and grape tomatoes go the pot. Let them simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the grape tomatoes start to soften. Add the garlic and chili flakes and simmer for another minute or so.
- Pop some tomato paste into the pot, season with salt and pepper, and stir until combined.
- Add the crushed tomatoes and their juices, then stir in a pinch of sugar, basil, olives, and capers.
- Bring the sauce to a rolling simmer, then lower the heat and let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will reduce and thicken.
- After 30 minutes, give the sauce a taste and season with more salt if necessary.
- Add the butter and stir until it melts.
- Serve over noodles of your choice. We like using fettuccine, linguine, or pappardelle!
Useful Tools for This Recipe
Recipe Tips + Tricks
- Castelvetrano olives aren’t a traditional ingredient, but I love them so much that I had to include them. You could swap them for extra kalamata olives.
- You could use a tablespoon of anchovy paste in place of the chopped anchovy fillets.
- Some canned tomatoes are more acidic then others. If you find your sauce to be too acidic, stir in 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and let it alkalize the sauce.
- I like to throw a parmesan rind into the sauce as it simmers. This adds a nice richness to the sauce.
- This sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Have You Made This Recipe?
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Other Sauce Recipes You Need to Try:
- Homemade Marinara Sauce
- Ground Italian Sausage Pasta Sauce
- Arrabbiata Sauce
- Instant Pot Bolognese
- Homemade Pizza Sauce
Easy Puttanesca Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
- 6 anchovy fillets, minced
- 1 tsp chili flakes, More or less depending on your heat preference
- 1 TBSP tomato paste
- 1 cup grape tomatoes
- 35 oz can of whole peeled plum tomatoes with juices, Crush the tomatoes by hand in a separate bowl before adding to the pot.
- A pinch of granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup ribboned basil leaves
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped castelvetrano olives
- 1 TBSP drained capers
- 1 TBSP butter (optional)
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
- Fresh chopped parsley and grated Parmesan, for garnish
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
- Pop the anchovies and grape tomatoes into the pot and let them simmer for 5 minutes or until the grape tomatoes start to soften up and burst. Then add the garlic and chili flakes, and simmer for another minute.
- Add the tomato paste to the pot and season with salt and pepper; stir until well combined.
- Transfer the crushed tomatoes and their juices to the pot, stir in a pinch of sugar, then add the basil, olives, and capers. Give everything a good stir to combine.
- Heat the sauce until it reaches a strong simmer, then decrease the heat to low and let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will reduce and thicken up.
- Prior to serving, give the sauce a taste and season it with more salt if necessary.
- Add the butter and stir until it melts.
- Serve the sauce over noodles of your choice. We like using fettuccine, linguine, or pappardelle!
- Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.
I saved this recipe some time ago and I finally got around to making it, this is an easy, quick umami rich dish that I’ll be making again. 😋
Thanks Dana for a great recipe.
Moe!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and thank you SO much for taking the time to leave feedback. I really appreciate that! :)
This recipe is seriously amazing!! I will definitely make it again and again!
I love puttanesca and haven’t had it in so long. Definitely making this one soon!
This sauce recipe is absolutely amazing!!!! So easy, delicious and family approved!
This sauce was incredible. The olives really shined through.
This was seriously perfect! I’ve wanted to make puttanesca sauce for years, but have felt way too overwhelmed on how difficult it is. You’re recipe was the secret sauce (see what I did there?), so delicious and easy to make. Everything thing about it was perfect! Thank you!