Sardine Pasta Puttanesca Recipe (2024)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I so wanted to love this. I adore Chicken Puttanesca (over mashed potatoes) so I thought this would be a slam-dunk, but it was too. much. I used Portuguese sardines and followed the recipe exactly. I did appreciate the construction of the recipe and how the sauce all came together at the end after continuously stirring the pasta but if it's possible, this was too much umami and too much fishiness. A total bomb at my house.

Halved the recipe to serve two persons. Delicious.

I made this the other night. I used brown rice noodles since I am gluten free. I made the mistake of adding the sardines with their oil in the beginning with the anchovies and garlic. It still came out delicious, even though the sardines were mostly just small bits rather than huge chunks. Will definitely make again.

Nice and satisfying dish ! It was a hit with chili loving husband and our chili hater child.Such good value for money ! Will make again.I added a dash of crushed fennel seeds to the tomato sauce - made from 2 bland winter tomatoes and a little bit canned tomatoes.

This was excellent. Made exactly as written.

I love this recipe! I can't wait to try it with my garden tomatoes this summer. Used canned diced tomatoes and it was great! But my house stinks a bit from the sardines and anchovies. It was worth it.

Loved it!

Let's be clear, when they say black olives, it typically means kalamatas (or something similar), not mild black olives that you'd use in Mexican dishes or are ubiquitous on pizza. Substituting with these mild olives is not an option. If you don't have the right ones, wait until you do to make the dish.

Surprised you don't include brown rice pasta in this recipe. We like its texture better than whole wheat pasta!