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Roasted Tomato Puttanesca

This roasted tomato puttanesca is a simple pasta sauce to use your end of summer tomato bounty.

At the end of summer and the beginning of autumn is when I harvest the bulk of my big heirloom tomatoes. They’re gorgeous and fat and so delicious when turned into roasted tomato puttanesca sauce.

It’s a very simple sauce, but with quite a few flavour makers like olives, capers and garlic, you really can’t go wrong.

a bowl of pasta shells with sauce and shaved parmesan, sitting on a wooden bench with a silver fork on the side

The Tomato Puttanesca Sauce Ingredients

Tomatoes

Homegrown tomatoes have the best flavour but use store bought if need be. They’ll be roasted which is going to increase the flavour tenfold. I use a mixture of whatever tomatoes I have growing – big heirloom varieties and some cherry tomatoes.

a basket of red and orange heirloom tomatoes

The tomatoes are roasted in the oven first with some balsamic vinegar until they’re caramalised and blistered.

Once roasted, I use a blender to blend the tomatoes until smooth. Most of my tomatoes in this batch were yellow so it was a yellow sauce, not a traditional tomato-red.

close up of roasted tomatoes

Capers, olives, garlic, chilli oregano anchovies (optional)

Here are the real flavour makers in this dish.

Capers, garlic, chilli and olives are fried off in oil until fragrant. You can add anchovies at this point too, or leave them out if you’re vegetarian. A dab of miso paste works well as an anchovy substitute.

a wooden spoon stirring capers and olives in a cast iron pan

Preparing the tomatoes

Chop big tomatoes into 2cm chunks and leave the little cherry tomatoes whole (or sliced in half).

Layer them in a large oven tray and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Bake them in a hot oven until the skins blister and caramalise.

The tomatoes will release a lot of moisture. After baking, scoop the tomatoes into a blender and leave all the excess liquid behind. Blend until smooth.

Pour the sauce into the pan, add in dried oregano and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

sauce being poured over olives and capers in a cast iron pan

To Serve

Serve the sauce hot, over freshly cooked pasta of your choice.

Add over shaved parmesan and a sprig of fresh oregano.

a bowl of pasta shells with sauce and shaved parmesan, sitting on a wooden bench with a silver fork sticking out of the bowl
a close up of a white bowl of pasta shells with sauce and shaved parmesan, sitting on a wooden bench with a silver fork on the side

Roasted Tomato Puttanesca

Yield: 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

This roasted tomato puttanesca is a simple pasta sauce to use your end of summer tomato bounty.

Ingredients

  • 600 grams fresh tomatoes, chopped into 2cm chunks (cherry tomatoes can be left whole or sliced in half)
  • 4 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 4 fillets anchovies or 1 Tbsp Miso paste
  • 3 Tbsp capers
  • ½ cup sliced Kalamata olives
  • ½ tsp dried chili flakes
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper

To Serve

  • 250g dried pasta
  • Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 210°C. Chop the tomatoes and lay them out on a large oven tray. Drizzle over the balsamic vinegar and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
  2. Bake for approximatly 20 minutes until the tomatoes are blistered and have collapsed.
  3. Once roasted, scoop the tomatoes into a blender and leave behind the excess liquid in the oven tray. Blend the tomatoes until smooth.
  4. Heat a saucepan over low-medium heat and add in the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
  5. Add in the garlic and fry for 1 minute before adding in the anchovies, capers, olives and chili flakes. Fry until the anchovies have broken down.
  6. Pour over the tomato sauce and add the dried oregano and miso paste (if using instead of anchovies.) Season with salt and pepper and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes.
  7. While the sauce is simmering, bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the dried pasta according to the packet instructions.
  8. Serve the sauce over the hot pasta along with shaved parmesan cheese.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 318Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 672mgCarbohydrates: 31gFiber: 5gSugar: 6gProtein: 8g

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