Sun Dried Tomato Puttanesca with tomatoes, anchovies and capers is super fragrant and bursting with flavor…an Italian original made with simple pantry ingredients.

If you’ve been looking to expand your collection of fast and simple pasta recipes you’ll most certainly want to add this easy Sun Dried Tomato Puttanesca recipe to your list.

This pasta holds us in rapt attention…and not just because of it’s sordid and maybe totally bogus backstory. It’s thought to have originated in the brothels of Italy…cooked by the “ladies of the night” between (cough) customers. Makes perfect sense since the ingredients aren’t perishable and could have easily been kept in their rooms. Hmmm…that’s one to ponder.

Anyway, we made this pasta dish using all pantry ingredients, while intentionally keeping the sauce a coating rather than a gravy.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR SUN DRIED TOMATO PUTTANESCA

Pasta – I love to make this recipe with basic spaghetti noodles, but any long noodle pasta will work.
Garlic – keep a jar of fresh minced garlic in the fridge so you always have garlic ready to go. It’ll save you from having that lingering garlic smell on your hands from mincing it yourself.
Parmesan Cheese – grated parmesan cheese adds amazing flavor and helps thicken the sauce.
Olive Oil – a robust olive oil works great, but regular or vegetable oil are good stand-ins.
Anchovies – tinned anchovies. Salty and fragrant and essential to this classic recipe!
Capers – briny and salty, they add lots of flavor to this simple pasta dish.
Diced Tomatoes – regular or petite size are perfect. DO NOT drain.
Red pepper Flakes – a little or a lot…the heat is up to you.
Sun Dried Tomatoes – oil packed from a jar. They have a saturated but mellow tomato flavor that gives a deep flavor to the sauce.
Parsley – fresh herbs are always welcome for their fresh earthy flavor.

TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST PUTTANESCA

Boil your pasta in salted water for extra flavor. Check out our article on the 9 Surprisingly Common Pasta Cooking Mistakes for more great pasta tips.
Use a pasta pot with insert to boil the pasta – it will change your life! No more draining pasta in the sink and risks steam burns!
Scoop up a cup of the cooked pasta water and reserve in case you need to thin the sauce. This might happen if your canned diced tomatoes are packed in very little liquid.
Toss the pasta in the same pan that you cooked the sauce. You don’t want to lose any by transferring pans…and who really wants another dirty dish anyway?
If your diced tomatoes are larger cuts, use the edge of your spoon to split them in half (or smaller) while cooking.