Pasta Puttanesca - Vegan Recipe
Vegan Pasta Puttanesca
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 1 lb Linguine
- 2 1/2 cups (500 gr) Whole peeled tomatoes, Diced
- 3.5 oz Black olives, Whole or sliced, your choice
- 1/2 cup Extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tbsp Capers, Drained
- 4 Anchovies (optional)
- 3 Cloves of garlic, Minced
- 1 Tbsp Tomato paste
- 1/3 cup Fresh parsley, Minced
- As liked Black pepper, or red pepper
- As needed Salt
This Very Tasty Dish Usually Includes Anchovies
The puttanesca sauce, typically used on spaghetti or linguine, is a traditional Italian red sauce, made with tomatoes, garlic, capers, black olives, and parsley.
Be aware that it is usually not vegan, it typically includes anchovies.
Instructions For Puttanesca Sauce
- In a large frying pan heat the olive oil with the garlic on medium heat.
- Before the garlic turns brown, add the tomatoes, chopped in small pieces and the tomato paste.
- Cook for ten minutes, then add the capers and olives, and cook for five more minutes.
- In the meanwhile cook the linguine according to the directions on the package, keeping them al dente.
- Rinse the anchovies, remove any bones, and cut them into smaller pieces. Complete the sauce adding the fresh parsley and the anchovies. Stir the sauce and taste to see if it needs any salt.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain it, making sure you keep some of the cooking water to add in case after you add the sauce the dish gets a little dry.
- Pour the linguine in the pan with the sauce and stir, over medium/high heat for two minutes.
- Transfer everything to a big serving dish or bowl, and enjoy while still hot.
What Are Capers?
Capers are the unopened flower buds of a bush, the Capparis Spinosa.
A common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine, capers are usually pickled or salted. The salted ones are tastier and usually healthier, because they don't need additives and preservatives.
You find them in stores next to pickles, olives, and other condiments. If you buy the ones cured in sea salt, make sure you thoroughly rinse them, to eliminate the extra salt.
Capers have different sizes, depending from the region of origin and kind. The smallest ones, nonpareils, are usually from France, the biggest ones are called grusas.
Health Benefits of Tomatoes
Tomatoes are a very popular ingredient in many recipes of the Mediterranean cuisine, and they have been proven to have wonderful health benefits, both eaten raw or cooked.
While most fruits and vegetables lose great part of their vitamins when cooked, cooked tomatoes have a special nutrient that becomes more powerful with the cooking process, especially when the tomatoes are cooked with their skin and seeds.
This amazing essential nutrient for humans is lycopene, a carotenoid that gives the red color to tomatoes. Lycopene has wonderful benefic effects to prevent bad cholesterol, or LDL, high blood pressure, and it is a powerful antioxidant that fights the action of free radicals on cells, contrasting the aging process.
The advantages of eating tomatoes don’t stop at the beneficial effects of lycopene.
Tomatoes are rich in water, about 94% of their weight, low in calories, and with a good content of minerals and water soluble vitamins. A food perfect for the hot summer months, but surely healthy all year long: light, fresh, nutrient, and flavorful.
Among the minerals contained in tomatoes: potassium, good against water retention and high blood pressure; phosphorus that is necessary to our body to function and stay in good shape; and calcium that fortifies teeth and bones.
Anchovies: very tasty ingredient, for your non-vegan friends.
About the Anchovies
Anchovies are salty fish fillets, and taste very salty and very fishy. Some people, like my husband, do not like them, just because of taste. Others wouldn’t eat them because of diet restrictions.
The good news is, even if you don’t include anchovies, the vegan puttanesca sauce tastes great anyway.
In fact, including in the recipe anchovies, capers, and olives there is always the risk to get a sauce that is too salty. Eliminating the salty and fishy taste of anchovies from the recipe can actually enhance the other flavors.
Pasta Puttanesca Nutrition Facts
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 90 gr (3.2 oz) | |
| Calories | 550 |
| Calories from Fat | 207 |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Fat 23 g | 35% |
| Saturated fat 3 g | 15% |
| Unsaturated fat 20 g | |
| Carbohydrates 73 g | 24% |
| Sugar 4 g | |
| Fiber 5 g | 20% |
| Protein 13 g | 26% |
| Cholesterol 0 mg | |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
© 2012 Robie Benve
