This anchovy and caper pasta is a great pantry pasta recipe to have on hand for whenever you need a fast and easy meal but have no fresh ingredients on hand. The combination of anchovies, sun-dried tomatoes and capers gives so much flavour to such a simple and quick-to-make dish.
This recipe is a simplified riff on spaghetti alla puttanesca, and you can easily customise it to your own tastes or to whatever you have on hand. Do you have olives in a jar? Throw them in! Or some extra baby spinach or rocket leaves in the fridge? Even better! Want a kick? Add some chilli flakes. Need more protein? Add a can of tuna. And if you have extra basil or parsley around, definitely add them in for even more delicious flavour!
A Few Recipe Notes
To make this dish, we basically just cook all the ingredients for the “sauce” in one pan while the pasta boils, and then add the pasta straight into the same pan and mix. Top with greens or herbs (if you’ve got them) and you’re done!
- Anchovies and capers are obviously the star ingredients here, but don’t worry about this dish tasting fishy- the anchovies breakdown and give the whole dish a salty, umami flavour that’s hardly fishy at all. I like to use baby capers here, but feel free to use regular sized capers instead too.
- I forgot to add it to the picture above, but I like to add a few cloves or garlic to this dish. If you use a garlic press to mince them, and use sun-dried tomato strips rather than whole ones, you won’t need to chop a thing for this recipe!
- You can use any type of dried pasta (long or short) for this dish. When you add the pasta to the rest of the ingredients, add the pasta straight from the boiling water so it carries some of the water with it. This helps to bind all the ingredients together as your stir them in.
How to Store
If you’ve got leftovers, simply store in an sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. To reheat, simply pop it in the microwave!
If you try this recipe, please let us know how you went in the comments below!
Anchovy and Caper Pasta
This is an easy pantry pasta to make when you need to throw something delicious together fast! It takes just 15 minutes and is packed full of flavour!
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2-4 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 anchovy fillets, from a jar
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp (20g) baby capers
- 1/2 cup (85g) sun-dried tomatoes strips, drained
- 350 g (12 ounces) pasta
- salt
Optional Additions
- baby spinach or rocket leaves
- dried chilli flakes
- fresh basil or parsley, to garnish
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and sauté the garlic, oregano and anchovies together. Stir for a few minutes until the anchovies begin to break apart.
- Stir in the sun-dried tomato and capers and cook for a few minutes before turning off the heat.
- In a separate pot (either during or after the above steps), cook the pasta according to the cooking instructions on the pack (making sure to salt the cooking water adequately). Once cooked, use a slotted spoon or strainer ladle to add the pasta directly from the pot to the frying pan. We want to carry over some water from the pasta to the anchovy sauce to bind the two together.
- Over low heat, stir the anchovy sauce and pasta together until well mixed. Add any additional seasonings or greens if desired.
- Serve scattered with fresh herbs, if available.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4Amount Per Serving: Calories: 324Total Fat: 7.9gSaturated Fat: 1.9gCholesterol: 83mgSodium: 579mgCarbohydrates: 50.1gFiber: 0.2gSugar: 0.8gProtein: 13.1g
Nutritional information provided is an estimation only and may differ depending on your own individual ingredients
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