Pasta Puttanesca From the Pantry

Puttanesca is the ultimate pantry dinner, a Neapolitan classic that exists because hungry cooks learned to turn olive oil, anchovies, capers, and tomato sauce into something genuinely special. This version adds canned tuna for a full meal and uses a low-fat jarred sauce as a shortcut.

Anchovies are not optional. They do not make the dish taste fishy. Those four little fillets melt completely into the warm sauce and carry a salty, savory umami bass note that nothing else replicates. Skip them and the sauce tastes flat.

Briny chopped olives (Kalamata or good black oil-cured) give the sauce its signature bite. Green olives work in a pinch but lean toward sharper and less authentic.

White tuna packed in water keeps the dish lean. If you want a richer version, switch to tuna in olive oil (Italian-style) and drain less fully. The added fat gives the sauce more body.

Mostaccioli or rigatoni are the right shapes. Their ridged tubes grab the chunky sauce where a smooth penne would let it slide off. Any tubular ridged pasta works.

Kitchen Tips

• Chop the anchovies very fine, or mash them with the flat of a knife, so they melt into the sauce rather than sitting in chunks.
• Taste before salting. Anchovies, olives, and canned tuna all carry salt. You often need no extra salt at all.
• Reserve a ladle of pasta water before draining. A splash loosens the sauce if it gets too thick in the pan.
• Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a grating of fresh parmesan or pecorino at the table.

Variations

• Add a tablespoon of capers with the olives for extra brine and traditional puttanesca kick.
• Swap tuna for canned sardines or smoked trout for a different oily-fish note.
• Add a pinch of red pepper flakes with the anchovies for heat (puttanesca is often spicy in Naples).