Tinned Sardine Puttanesca (tomato sauce with olive and capers)

Sardine puttanesca (tomato pasta) in a blue bowl, taken from above

 

This dish is inspired by a classic puttanesca and makes a delicious and super quick lunch. In this recipe, we’re replacing the anchovies with tinned sardines. Normally, we like to use tinned sardines in olive oil or extra virgin olive oil, like our Nuri Sardines in Olive Oil, but you can also substitute for sardines in tomato sauce, and add the tomato from the tin into the sauce.

This dish can be adjusted to taste, and we don’t always follow tradition and love to add to add some grated parmesan to finish the dish off. You can also add some simple breadcrumbs or a pangrattato for added texture.

This recipe serves 2, so feel free to scale it up or down. We sometimes make extra sauce, then remove half for another day, either in the fridge or freezer. If you do this, you may need a little extra pasta water to loosen the sauce up.

 

Ingredients

  • 180g spaghetti
  • 1 tin of sardines in olive oil
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • ½ - 1 teaspoons of chilli flakes, to taste
  • A handful of black, pitted olives
  • 2 tablespoons of capers
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 can chopped tomatoes. The best quality you can justify (trust us, a better tomato makes a big difference!)
  • A handful of parsley leaves
  • Salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Parmesan (or similar) - grate over at the end if desired

 

Ingredients for a tinned sardine tomato pasta (puttanesca) on a chopping board

 

Directions

  1. Get a full kettle on, boil the water and add to a large saucepan with a big pinch of salt
  2. Whilst the water is boiling, finely slice the garlic, and roughly chop the olives (keep the garlic separate from the capers and olives as it won't go in at the same time)
  3. Throw the spaghetti into the boiling water - you want to cook it until it’s a bit less than al dente as it’ll finish cooking in the sauce
  4. Get a frying pan heating gently
  5. Open the tinned sardines, add the oil from the tin to the pan and top up with a generous glug of extra virgin olive oil 
  6. Add the sliced garlic and chilli flakes to the pan. You want to soften the garlic slightly, but not add any colour
  7. After the garlic has softened for a couple of minutes, add the sardines, capers and olives into the pan and give it a good mix. We like to break up the sardines well so they become a part of the sauce, but you can leave them chunky if you prefer
  8. Once the sardines, capers and olives have been cooking for a couple of minutes, add the chopped tomatoes in
  9. Add a good pinch of salt. Tomatoes can take a lot, but taste as you go to check whether it’s to your liking. You can add pepper here, but we prefer to add the pepper right at the end for that extra kick
  10. The pasta should have been cooking for about 6 minutes now, check it’s slightly less than al dente, and if so use tongs to transfer it straight to the sauce without draining. Make sure to reserve some of that pasta water
  11. Give it a good mix, and then add some additional pasta water to the sauce (if your tomatoes were quite watery, you may want to skip this. The water should thin the sauce slightly and help it coat the pasta evenly)
  12. Turn the heat up for 30 seconds, this will help to emulsify the sauce. 
  13. Throw in the parsley, and give it one last mix
  14. Transfer to pasta bowls, top with freshly cracked black pepper, drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil, and grate over parmesan (if you want, sorry to any Italians reading). It’s also here you would top with the breadcrumbs or pangrattato