Blonde Puttanesca a la Browning
This recipe is stolen, ahem, adapted from a NYT recipe and has become a Browning family staple. As with most thing in life, the Brownings got ahold of the recipe and just dialed it up and dolled it up. It has a lot of the ingredients of a regular puttanesca, but with no tomato. The weight of the conservas and oils is lifted and brightened by the lemon, peppery arugula and breadcrumbs. I think you’re going to love it.
A note: my husband does not like olives, anchovies or tuna and he has claimed this as his favorite pasta of all time.
Blonde Puttanesca a la Browning
Yield: Serves 4
A quick and sophisticated pasta that is soon to be a staple on your dining table.
Time
- Prep: 15 mins
- Cook: 15 mins
- Total: 30 mins
Ingredients
- 12 oz spaghetti (¾ of a box – I know this is annoying but if you have too much pasta your sauce will be really thrown off)
- 3 TB olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced into slivers
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 10-15 anchovies, minced + a little oil (note – the cheap anchovies don’t melt as well as they might – go for slightly nicer ones)
- 3 heaped TB of capers + a little juice
- ¾ cup green olives, chopped
- 1 6oz jar of Italian tuna packed in olive oil
- 5 oz arugula (a whole box!)
- ¼ - ½ cup Italian parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 cup panko
- 1 lemon, zested and cut into segments
- Flaky salt
Recipe
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic slivers, red pepper flakes, anchovies (plus a little oil) and capers (plus a little vinegar). Sauté all together until anchovies are nicely melted and garlic is translucent.
- Add in olives. Flake in tuna and add some of the oil. Dump in the whole box of arugula, turn off heat and toss toss toss.
- Cook your spaghetti according to package directions. Reserve a scoop of pasta water even though we *probably* won’t need it.
- While the pasta is cooking toast the panko in a dry skillet until it’s golden brown. Grate in lemon zest. Cut the zested lemon into segments.
- Add cooked pasta to the tuna sauce. Then add chopped parsley. Using tongs toss the whole thing together, coating the spaghetti in the oils and adding a little of the pasta water if you think it needs it.
- Serve in bowls and top with toasted lemon panko. Finish with flaky salt and offer more chopped parsley or red pepper flakes.