Easy Vegan Low-Fat Pasta Puttanesca Recipe With Capers and Olives (2024)

• Main Dishes
• Vegetarian Mains
• Pastas
• Tomatoes Recipes
• Low-Fat Cooking

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While there's no clear history of the origin of pasta puttanesca, every version of the story points to Naples as its place of origin. Wasn't inventing pizza enough for this beautiful port city? It can claim this extraordinary recipe, too, so fresh and simple that it's impossible not to fall in love with it. Known locally as aulive e chiapparielle, or olives and capers, the recipe also includes tomatoes, red chili flakes, and fresh basil to concoct a deliciously briny and boldly flavored sauce that coats pasta to perfection. Usually served with linguini or vermicelli, the sauce works well with spaghetti, too, and short pasta pairs with the sauce just fine if that's what you have at hand. In true Italian tradition, this pasta is not served with cheese, but rather a fresh green salad and some crusty bread to soak up the juicy tomatoes. Once your water is boiling, it's time to start the sauce: add the pasta to the pot once all the sauce ingredients are in the pan and serve dinner in just 15 minutes.

Vegan in essence, this pasta has another version coming from the Lazio region of Italy in which anchovies are added to the sauce. Ours is vegan and can be made gluten-free just by swapping durum wheat pasta for rice or chickpea pasta. For our recipe, we choose convenient canned crushed tomatoes, but if you have a bounty of juicy and ripe summer tomatoes, simply chop them finely and add them to the pan as you'd add their canned counterpart. We choose sweet and fruity Kalamata olives because of their flavor, but Italian salty and tart Gaeta olives are also widely used for this preparation. Use either or a combination of both if you are lucky enough to have them at hand. In both cases, taste the sauce before adding more salt, as the olives, capers, and the tablespoon of olive brine are already very salt.

This sauce can be made ahead and kept in the fridge for up to three days. Double the recipe if you want some for later and freeze half in ice cube trays so you can defrost and use the necessary amounts without thawing too much of it. Delicious puttanesca can double as a base for other recipes, such as a no-cheese lasagna with layers of pasta sheets and grilled vegetables. Use it to stew tofu, tempeh, or seitan, and serve over brown rice or couscous for another delightful vegan meal with these bright and delicious puttanesca flavors.