Punchy Vegan Puttanesca

This week’s dish is all my favorite things. Comforting, easy to make, and inexpensive. What’s more, my Punchy Vegan Puttanesca puts to rest those nasty rumors that vegan meals are boring and bland! I dare you to say it to her face. 😉

Puttanesca is one of the first pasta dishes I truly mastered during my pre-veggie days. Not to mention one of my favorite. So it was a foodie mission of mine to veggify that bad boy once I became a vegetarian.

One of the things I love about this dish is that it’s made from mostly store-cupboard staples. I always have tin tomatoes, spaghetti, chilli flakes and olives in the house. So a delicious bowl of puttanesca is never far away.

I have altered the recipe slightly to suit my tastes though. For example, I’m not a fan of capers – so I don’t use them. And now that I’m a vegetarian the anchovy component is a no no.

Now, the dish can do without the capers but not the fishy, salty vibe of the anchovies. This proved to be a little trickier to rectify. That was until I tried Tamari!

Is it exactly the same? No, of course not. But Tamari sauce does have a the right kinda vibe. Plus, it’s easy to find at your local supermarket and gluten free. So all you need is a gluten free pasta and you’ve got yourself a fabulous vegan, gluten free meal that everyone will love!

I’d love to know your thoughts on my Tamari/anchovy sub. Be sure to hit me up in the comments below or you can pop over to my Instagram and say hey. There’s always heaps of foodie talk going down over there.

Serves 2

250g dried spaghetti

half a 400g tin of diced tomatoes

2 tsp olive oil

a clove of garlic (bruised and finely chopped)

1 tsp chilli flakes

small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (finley chopped)

2 tsp tamari sauce

1/2 cup black kalamata olives (pitted and halved)

Method:

Put a large pot of cold water on the hob. Turn the heat on high so the water comes to a rolling boil
While you’re waiting for the pasta water to start boiling you can get on with the sauce: in a medium pot put your olive oil, garlic, chilli flakes and half the parsley. Gently heat over low flame so as not to burn the garlic.
After around 30 seconds to 1 minute add your tin tomatoes and give it a gentle stir. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add a little pasta water if the mixture seems too dry.
At this point the pasta water should be boiling. Add two heaped tsp of sea salt to the boiling pasta water, let it dissolve then add your dried spaghetti. Stir the pasta with a fork so it all becomes immersed in the water. Let your pasta boil like this for around 6 minutes.
Once your puttanesca sauce has been bubbling away for around 5 minutes add your olives and tamari sauce. Give the mixture a gentle stir.
At around the 6 minute mark, your pasta will have softened slightly but still hard in the middle. Using some tongs, take the pasta directly from the boiling pasta water and add it to the sauce. Don’t worry if some of the pasta water is transferred with the spaghetti – this is desirable.
Once you’ve added all the spaghetti to the puttanesca sauce, turn up the heat slightly and give the whole thing a mix using your tongs. Your pasta will finish cooking in the delicious, spicy sauce whilst sucking up all the flavour.
Pasta not quite ready but your sauce has reduced? Add a little more pasta water and mix through with the tongs.
Divide between two bowls and sprinkle the remaining parsley over the top.