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Puttanesca Sauce

A vegan sauce made with olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, olives, capers, red pepper, oregano, pepper, and parsley.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Puttanesca Sauce

Timeabout 15 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat oil in a large skillet.

  2. Add garlic and sauté over medium heat until garlic starts to brown lightly.

  3. Add oregano, pepper, olives, capers, and tomatoes, then simmer for about 15 minutes.

  4. Add parsley and cook for another 2 minutes.

  5. Add salt to taste.

Serve

  1. Pour over 1 pound (450 g) of cooked pasta, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

171Calories
2 gProtein
15 gFat
10 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Olive1 large (4g)4
Capers1 tbsp (9g) drained2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Tomato + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,767 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Oregano + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Extra-virgin olive oil
Carries the garlic and crushed red pepper, giving the sauce its base fat and flavour.
Garlic
Browns lightly in the oil, adding sweet, aromatic depth to the sauce.
Crushed tomatoes
Form the body of the sauce and add moisture and acidity as they simmer.
Kalamata olives
Add briny, savoury flavour that deepens as the sauce simmers.
Salt-cured black olives
Add concentrated, salty, savoury flavour to the sauce.
Capers
Add sharp, briny acidity that brightens the rich tomato base.

The step that matters

Browning the garlic lightly. Garlic turns bitter when it browns too deeply. Cooking it over medium heat until just lightly golden gives sweet, aromatic flavour without acrid notes in the finished sauce.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, garlic, tomato, capers, pepper, oregano, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, garlic, tomato, capers, pepper, oregano, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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