WW Recipe of the Day: Gluten-Free Pasta Alla Puttanesca
We enjoyed this delicious pasta alla puttanesca for dinner the other night, using brown rice spaghetti to make it gluten-free for Mac.
Gluten-Free Pasta Alla Puttanesca
I find myself using gluten-free pasta more and more often these days. I think it tastes fine and life is much easier in the kitchen, when everyone is able to enjoy the same meal.
I'm a huge fan of pasta alla puttanesca, but don't make often enough to have the recipe and ratios committed to memory. Plus, I'm eternally curious about how my favorite cookbook writers prepare their food.
Recipe Notes
So, before beginning to cook, I looked at two different recipes: Nigella Lawson's Slut's Spaghetti found in Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home (affiliate link) and Mark Bittman's version from How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food (affiliate link).
I love that Nigella actually calls it "sluts spaghetti," the english translation for pasta alla puttanesca, stating that "the general consensus seems to be that this is the sort of dish cooked by slatterns who don't go to market to get their ingredients fresh, but are happy to use stuff out of jars and tins. Something I'm all too happy to do some nights, after a busy day."
One of my reasons for choosing to make this pasta dish for dinner: I had everything I needed right in the pantry; no trip to the market required.
Puttanesca shows up in How to Cook Everything as variation #14 of Mark Bittman's recipe for fast tomato sauce.
The only difference I noticed when comparing the two very similar recipes was that Bittman's ratio of tomatoes was higher than Nigella's.
Gluten-Free Spaghetti Puttanesca
What I ended up with was a spaghetti puttanesca that was essentially combination of the two. Since I love tomatoes and pastas that are a bit on the saucy side, I opted to go with the greater amount.
It turned out delicious. Easy, healthy, spicy and satisfying. (If this is too saucy for you, as it would be for a true Italian, just use less of the sauce and save what's left to top chicken or fish or make bruschetta.)
What more could you want from an easy weeknight supper, except maybe a simple green salad and loaf of good Italian bread to serve alongside?
How Many Calories and WW Points in this Pasta Puttanesca?
According to my calculations, each serving made with regular spaghetti has 330 calories and:
11 *SmartPoints (Green plan)
11 *SmartPoints (Blue plan)
11 *SmartPoints (Purple plan)
8 *PointsPlus (Old plan)
To see your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, Click here!
If you're following WW Purple Plan, save a whopping *8 SmartPoints by substituting brown rice spaghetti for regular!
When made with gluten-free brown rice spaghetti:
11 *SmartPoints (Green plan)
11 *SmartPoints (Blue plan)
8 *SmartPoints (Purple plan)
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Gluten Free Pasta Alla Puttanesca Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound gluten-free spaghetti
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 to 8 anchovy fillets, drained and finely chopped
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon crushed hot red pepper flakes
- 1 can (28 ounces) tomatoes, chopped
- ½ cup pitted black olives (such as Kalamata), roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons drained capers
- 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or basil (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to boil and salt it. Once the water comes to a boil, you will want to cook it, according to the package directions, until it's tender, but not mushy. Before draining the pasta, scoop up a cup of the pasta water to use when finishing the recipe.
While the water boils and pasta cooks, make your sauce:
- Pour the oil into a large skillet set over medium-high heat.
- Add the finely chopped anchovies, and cook stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the anchovies have almost "melted away." Add the garlic and chili flakes and cook, stirring all the time, for another minute, so that the garlic doesn't burn.
- Add the tomatoes, olives, and capers and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the drained spaghetti to the sauce and stir until everything is well combined. If it seems dry, add a little more oil and some of the cooking water.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as desired.
- Garnish with parsley or basil, if desired and serve immediately.
Equipment
Recipe Notes
11 *SmartPoints (Green plan) 11 *SmartPoints (Blue plan) 11 *SmartPoints (Purple plan) 8 *PointsPlus (Old plan) When made with brown rice spaghetti:
11 *SmartPoints (Green plan) 11 *SmartPoints (Blue plan) 8 *SmartPoints (Purple plan)
*Points® calculated by WW. *PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® calculated by Simple Nourished Living; Not endorsed by Weight Watchers International, Inc. All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. SmartPoints® values calculated WITHOUT each plan's ZeroPoint Foods (Green plan, Blue plan, Purple plan) using the WW Recipe Builder.
If you like this pasta puttanesca, you might also like:
- My recipe for Italian Sausage and Pasta with Vegetables
- My recipe for Light and Creamy One Pot Pasta
- Nigella's recipe for Slut's Spaghetti
- Mark Bittman's Recipe for Pasta Puttanesca
- A video of Mark Bittman making Pasta Puttanesca
- A Weight Watchers recipe for pasta puttanesca
Martha is the founder and main content writer for Simple-Nourished-Living.
A longtime lifetime WW at goal, she is committed to balancing her love of food and desire to stay slim while savoring life and helping others do the same.
She is the author of the Smart Start 28-Day Weight Loss Challenge.
A huge fan of the slow cooker and confessed cookbook addict, when she's not experimenting in the kitchen, you're likely to find Martha on her yoga mat.
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Pearl Bates
I am laughing a bit here... love Pasta Puttanesca but it is not from lazy people, it comes from Italian Brothels of old.
It was a quickly made meal, to provide sustenance between clients.
It contains tomatoes but not sauce... no time to make sauce, usually.
Olives, anchovies, seasonings.
I came for the One Pot Wonder Recipe .... rating five