One-pot spaghetti puttanesca

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This super easy spaghetti puttanesca recipe from Rachel Phipps is perfect for a speedy midweek meal. Simple to make, this one-pot pasta dish does exactly what it says on the tin – spaghetti, tomatoes, black olives, basil and capers cooked in one saucepan on the hob combine to provide an almost instant Italian feast for one.

First published in 2016

This is the pasta dish to make when you’ve just got home from work and you want to have dinner on the table as quickly (and with as little effort) as possible. No, it does not have a same fresh, bright hit as a classic puttanesca, but the rich, starchy sauce, flavour from the anchovies and piquancy from the black olives and non-pareille capers, make this an altogether more comforting bowlful – perfect for those days when you’re craving a sunny bowl of pasta but it is pouring with rain outside.

Using this one-pot method you can pretty much use the same ingredients you would in a classic puttanesca, with a few slight alterations. The use of fresh cherry tomatoes rather than tinned lightens the sauce a bit, and using dried olives that have not been stored in brine make sure the dish does not get too salty. They also plump up beautifully with the cooking liquid.

Ingredients

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Imperial

One-pot spaghetti puttanesca

Method

1
Place the spaghetti in a small pan along with the prepared cherry tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, olives, basil leaves and olive oil. Season generously with black pepper and sparingly with salt
2
Add 250ml of the boiling water and place over a medium-high heat. Cook for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the spaghetti is just cooked through and the sauce has thickened
3
Towards the end of cooking the sauce may become too thick and dry for the pasta to finish cooking, causing it to stick on the bottom of the pan. If so, add some of the remaining water, a little at a time, to help loosen the sauce
4
Once cooked through, stir in the capers and serve immediately, garnished with the reserved sprigs of fresh basil

Rachel is a food writer, splitting time between the Kentish and French countrysides.

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