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Sardine Pasta Puttanesca
Updated Feb. 16, 2024
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- Total Time
- 40 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- Salt
- 1pound long pasta, like spaghetti, bucatini or linguine
- 3tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2(4- to 4.5-ounce) cans sardines packed in olive oil (see Tip), not drained
- 4anchovy fillets
- 6garlic cloves, smashed with the side of a chef’s knife then chopped
- Red-pepper flakes, to taste
- 2pints/about 4 cups cherry tomatoes
- ¾cup pitted black olives, very roughly chopped
- ¼cup drained capers
- 1small handful parsley sprigs, finely chopped
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a high-sided skillet or medium pot of water to a boil and season with salt. Add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until floppy but still quite raw in the center (about 4 minutes shy of the cook time suggested on the package). Drain pasta, reserving 4 cups of the cooking liquid.
- Step 2
When the pasta is nearly cooked, heat a medium Dutch oven over medium-low. Add the olive oil, the oil from the sardines, the anchovies and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic is just beginning to turn golden and the anchovies have broken down, about 3 minutes. Add red-pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, until aromatic, about 30 seconds.
- Step 3
Add the tomatoes and 2 cups of the reserved pasta cooking liquid and increase heat to medium. Bring to a simmer and cook until the tomatoes are warmed through and slightly softened, 4 to 6 minutes. Use a wooden spoon or potato masher to roughly smash them. Continue simmering until the tomato juices have slightly thickened into a sauce, about 5 minutes.
- Step 4
Add the drained pasta and cook, stirring vigorously, until the sauce coats the noodles and the pasta has cooked to your desired final texture, adding more pasta cooking liquid as needed, about 2 minutes. Add the sardines, olives, capers and parsley, stirring to evenly distribute and break up the sardines. Divide among plates and serve right away.
- The size of sardine cans typically ranges from 4 to 4.5 ounces. You don’t have to be precise in this recipe, so buy any can that falls somewhere within that size range. This recipe works with both whole sardines and boneless, skinless fillets.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
There are enough sardines in the sea to feed the world, and we should be eating more of them. Quality counts--most grocery-store sardines come from Morocco and are industrially processed. Those from Spain and Portugal are generally better quality. A separate note: Italians would never put six garlic cloves in puttanesca. We brown a couple cloves in the oil, then remove them so as not to overpower the other flavors.
I love this general technique and use it often, but a warning: careful when you smash those tomatoes! They're little juice-bombs and will happily make a mess of you and your stove and anything else within spitting distance. I pierce each one with a knife before tossing them into the pan to mitigate their explosiveness.
I love this recipe. A huge hit. My only modification was that I let the tomatoes sauté in the oil a bit longer than the recipe calls for before I added the pasta water. Otherwise, I think the tomatoes sort of boil instead of fry. NB: As with all dishes that cook the pasta along with the other ingredients, for a few moments it seems like you've added too much water and are inadvertently making a soup. Don't despair. A moment later the pasta absorbs everything and all is well.
Made this with no fresh ‘maters as we didn’t have- but we had lovely sardines. Instead, I used a little Raos marinara, tomato paste properly caramelized, and diced tomatoes, drained, plus all other ingredients. The oil from the sardines was wonderful. Will make this following the recipe next time. The time estimate of 40 minutes was right on the mark. Everyone loved it.
Wow, this was FABULOUS!! When you’re craving that salty-fishy-OOOMPH-on-your-palate-dish, make this. Followed directions pretty exactly, using dry-cured black olives (which added to the ooomph factor), and Portugese sardines thanks to another commenter’s advice. A whole small tin of anchovies. Only needed about 3 cups pasta water. Easy to keep most of the ingredients on hand. Will make again and again!
I wish this recipe had included nutritional information. I suspect it's very high in sodium, given the canned sardines, anchovies, capers, olives...and added salt. For those trying to lower sodium, you might want to reduce or eliminate some of these ingredients. There are recipes online (including, I think, a NYT Mark Bittman recipe) for Sicilian sardine pasta that are not quite so sodium intensive.
Tasty! This dish would generally be a hard no for my husband so I left out the olives, he dealt with the capers and said it is a make again dish! We are lower sodium so I did not salt the pasta water (I know I know) and I did use an entire can of anchovies and did not use any seasoning salt. Satisfying and bright. Definitely needs the spice without the olives though, gotta have some punch.
Simply outstanding - tremendous flavor. I followed the recipe and was rewarded with a meal everyone raved about.
BJ, perhaps read the recipe again.
interesting technique to smash the tomatoes! I went for 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, probably could have been 1tsp. all other measurements worked for me.
Really nice dish. I'm not someone who would normally be interested in a recipe with sardine in the name but was looking for any excuse to use up the massive quantity of cherry tomatoes coming out of the garden now. Made exactly as written and was pleasantly surprised--just lovely.
This is a fantastic, flavorful weeknight meal that will be part of our regular rotation. Added 1 tsp of oregano along with the chile flakes for extra flavor, and some baby spinach to make this a one pot balanced meal. There are lots of briny flavors, but we found the sauce still benefited from a 1/2 tsp of kosher salt and lots of fresh black pepper.
I love pasta with tuna and love sardines but was a little leery of sardine pasta. It was surprisingly delicious. I halved the recipe for the two of us and improvised by using a 14 oz can of cherry tomatoes (didn’t have fresh) plus some tomato paste. I halved everything except I used the full amount of anchovies. I only needed to add a splash of the pasta cooking water at the end. It was an easy, delightful meal.
This was pretty good. I added some freshly chopped oregano when adding the tomatoes to the olive oil mixture and cooked the tomatoes without adding water. Doing this the tomatoes will burst out of their skins and caramelize a little so the flavors are better and you don't get splattered trying to smash them up in water. I think the flavor of the dish would be improved by then adding white wine instead of pasta water so I will try that next time.
Benn adding good quality tuna in olive oil to puttanesca for years but never thought of sardines. Will try that next time.
I like to riff based on what I have. I only had a few cherry tomatoes so I added some leftover jarred vindaloo sauce. I used berbere and Aleppo red pepper instead of flakes and that really made things special. It took a while for the water to burn off since there wasn’t much tomato to work with but it’s no worse for wear. In fact I’m a bit obsessed and might try to do it this way again! Went light on sardines and added goat cheese. Love!
I increased the veggie quotient by adding a bunch of broccoli rabe, making it a single pot meal. Could do spinach or arugula. I cooked the rabe in the pasta pot while cooking sauce in the Dutch oven, then added it while plating. I used the whole anchovies tin, to avoid left overs, and it tasted great - didn’t add any salt. Tried sautéing/caramelizing cherry tomatoes before adding the pasta water, but I don’t think I had the heat high enough. Rich delicious meal, ends up 6 - 8 portions.
I used some passata as I hadn’t any fresh tomatoes… we loved it!
Made this a while back. Stuck to the recipe and it was great. Use good quality tinned fish. Added parmesan, even though I know that's often omitted with fish.
Added 1/2 of a peeled chopped granny Smith apple as a garnish -sardines and granny Smith go well together, but didn't work here. Next time I'll try some golden raisins. The idea is sweet to balance the pungency.
Absolutely loved this recipe! We had everything we needed in the pantry or fresh from the garden. Parents: this recipe is child’s play. My daughter has been helping cook it with me since she was 3, and now at nearly 7 she can do it mostly by herself. Our only regular addition is a bit of thinly sliced fresh basil when we plate it up. Such a pleasure!
We really liked this, including the kids. Our three year-old had seconds and kept demanding more sardine pieces.
I've got to admit that I've never eaten canned sardines and was skeptical, but my wife lobbied for this recipe, and... it was delicious! Complex, deeply flavorful, aromatic, and healthy. I imagined that I was eating this in a trattoria in Sicily Followed recipe as described, and it turned out fabulous. And yes, don't worry about undercooking the pasta - it softens up with the tomato sauce. Ciao bella!
I make a similar dish frequently - but use grape tomatoes (sweeter) and sardines in lemon with olive oil. Delish and easy!
Pasta purists may faint, but this easily works as a one-pot dish …
This is a super easy dinner with very little prep! I recommend a lot more anchovies (I used 2 tins). It made the sauce rich and flavorful.
Very delicious. Have made several times and the best was today. The differences from prior were 1) I used only the oil in the sardine can, which was the right amount for my taste; 2) halved the cherry tomatoes and sauteed a bit for adding the reserved pasta water and 3) added a few glugs of passata. Boil the pasta, drain, then use the same pot for the sauce for less mess, Living in Portugal I am spoiled for great quality tinned sardines for €2-3, so thrilled to have such a good recipe.
I would just use canned tomatoes next time. Didn’t care for the tomato skins. A good way to get your family to eat some healthy fishes.
Very tasty. I was skeptical about putting so much water into the tomatoes, but with time, the sauce came together. Added very little water to the pasta as I stirred it into the sauce. Love that the olives, sardines, capers and parsley are added at the very end, not cooked down. The oil from the canned sardines ensures a nice umami throughout.
Wow! I am so surprised by this recipe. I’ve made puttanesca many times before and adding sardines never occurred to me. I wasn’t even sure I would like sardines, but I LOVE this recipe. Very easy to make. I was able pull this together in an hour.
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