Green Olive Puttanesca
Green Olive Puttanesca. Giving classic puttanesca a little spin with green olives, zesty breadcrumbs, and basil. There’s plenty of heirloom tomatoes and cherry tomatoes plus blacked oil cured olives like a classic puttanesca. Enter, this classic...ish puttanesca but with a twist. A little herby, a little spicy. And so so fresh with an olive and chili oil based sauce. And it’s the middle of the week which means sometimes you just need a good pasta dish to make it through, you know?!
So, you guys are probably wondering why us Italian cooks over here haven’t made a puttanesca dish on our blog yet. And honestly, we’re not quite sure ourselves how we’ve let this authentic, colorful, and delicious dish go out of sight.
This week we are finally creating a puttanesca to share with you guys. This one strays a little bit from the true authentic puttanesca, but we thought adding a twist was a good way to give the dish a pop of color and make it a little more fun for a mid-January Wednesday night.
We’re really excited about this one. It’s got all those juicy, colorful heirloom and cherry tomatoes, chili peppers, anchovie paste, and oil cured black olives…the essentials in a classic puttanesca. But the twist is those green olives, zesty and herby breadcrumbs, and basil topping. Take it from some Italians, this twist on puttanesca is totally better than the classic !!
Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil
1 garlic clove; chopped
3 whole chili peppers or 1 1/2 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
zest 1 lemon
2 inch length anchovie paste
2 cups cherry tomatoes; halved
1/4 cup green pitted olives
1/4 cup oil cured black pitted olives
2 - 3 heirloom tomatoes; sliced
salt and pepper
1 pound spaghetti
fresh basil for serving
For the Breadcrumbs
4 thick slices rustic bread; cut into chunks
2 - 3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
zest 1 lemon
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
Directions
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic, chili peppers, oregano, thyme, lemon zest, and anchovie paste. Cook for 5 minutes until garlic sizzles and anchovie paste has broken down. Add the cherry tomatoes and both olives. Cook 5 - 7 minutes until tomatoes start to soften. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
On a parchment lined baking sheet toss, the bread cubes with olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon zest, and thyme leaves. Heat the bread cubes in a 425 degree oven until golden. Remove and transfer to a food processor. Pulse until cubes are broken down.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water. Drain reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Add the pasta to the skillet adding pasta water as needed.
Serve with the heirloom tomatoes and topped with fresh basil and breadcrumbs.
