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Orecchiette Puttanesca with Tuna and White Beans
This hearty pasta dinner is from Milk Street Community member Karen Waldman of Brookfield, Connecticut. Bold, briny puttanesca sauce finds delicious partners in creamy white beans and flaked tuna. This recipe is a one-pot wonder. First we boil the pasta, drain it, then use the same pot to make the sauce. Waldman prefers orecchiette pasta because the small saucer shapes catch bits of the olives, capers and tuna. She also likes to keep the consistency on the “soupy” side; stir in additional pasta water at the end to adjust the consistency to suit your taste.
4-6
Servings
Tip
Don’t forget to rinse and drain the beans. If their starchy liquid makes it into the pot, it will turn the sauce thick and heavy. Don’t worry about removing the garlic cloves after they’re lightly browned. They’ll soften and break apart slightly as the sauce cooks.
30 minutes
Ingredients
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1
pound orecchiette pasta
-
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
Directions
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01In a large pot, bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Stir in the pasta and 1 tablespoon salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, until just shy of al dente. Reserve 2½ cups of the cooking water, then drain.
Reviews
May 30, 2025
Use the best ingredients you can muster
I think the success of this dish really rises or falls on the quality of the ingredients. I made it with fresh orecchiette from an Italian market, imported Castelvetrano olives (Fratelli d’Amico, if you can find them), canned San Marzano tomatoes, and Tonnino jarred tuna. It was fantastic—bright, fresh, and well balanced. I think if I had used Starkist, Hunts, Barilla, and grocery store jarred olives, it could have been meh, as another reviewer described it.
June 1, 2023
Tasty and filling
I really liked this! I think I might try adding some anchovies to the sauce to give a little more of a briny taste. The 1 tsp of red pepper flakes makes a spicy puttanesca sauce but the heat goes down once you add the pasta. You will definitely need to add some salt at the end.
January 6, 2024
Meh.
I really wanted to like this and all the ingredients looked great on their own. But the whole dish together was just ok. It needed something to make it pop, but I'm not sure what that is.
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