Cod alla Puttanesca
*serves 4

It has been years since I have made puttanesca sauce, so I’m really excited to be sharing this recipe on Tina to Table. Do you know what puttanesca sauce is? Puttanesca is a tomato based sauce loaded with olives, capers, anchovy and red pepper flakes. It is slightly sweet, salty, spicy and thick with love and flavor. When I was growing up, we ate a lot of spaghetti alla puttanesca, particularly on Friday’s during Lent — but as an adult I really favored eating white fish bathed in this hearty sauce, well, for numerous reasons. Sure, I love pasta, but I’m actually a bigger fan of being able to eat salty, briny sauce by the spoonful. Yes, I eat sauce by the spoonful — stop judging me — so pairing puttanesca with a big fine piece of cod allows me to eat spoonfuls of sauce much more readily than if I were to eat said sauce with pasta. The way the sauce coats the fish in this dish heavenly, well, if you fancy tomatoes and olives and it is — by far — one of my favorite sauces and meals.

But enough about that, puttanesca is relatively easy to prepare and quick for a weeknight dinner too. Spice up your fish game by cooking it in a vat of this sauce, and I promise you won’t regret it. I’ll even share a few weeknight cheat codes that make this sauce pain free and super simple to prepare!

Round up your ingredients — you’ll need a can of crushed tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, pitted kalamata olives, Castelvetrano olives, and capers. And here’s the thing, and some traditionalists may disagree, but you can have some olive fun and use marinated Italian olives so you have a variety of color and texture in your sauce. OR you may even dare to use a few heaps of muffaletta olive tapenade / relish which is a mix of finely chopped/diced olives, pickled vegetables (AKA giardiniera: think minced carrots, celery, red peppers and even cauliflower — but it’s chopped so fine in this relish that one would never know it’s in there!) — herbs and lots of garlic! Using muffaletta is actually a super simple way to spice up this sauce for quick cooking too. And shhhhhhhh, it’s what I used this go around because I only realized my aunt had extra olives in the downstairs refrigerator AFTER I started cooking. Whoops!

To get the sauce started you’ll add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large pan with garlic, a few anchovies (which melt away anyway, but if you have a fear, don’t use them — I skipped them on this round of quick dinner night) and crushed red pepper flakes. Then you’ll add in the crushed tomatoes, give it a whirl, layer in capers, olives and your muffaletta (SHHHHHH)!

Once the sauce has been cooking for about 30-40 minutes or so, you can add in the cod. Now the cod will cook / poach in the sauce so the flavors can all start mingling together for another 30 minutes; or until the cod is flaky and cooked through.

Just as the cod is finished cooking, you can finish the dish the a heap of finely minced parsley and toast some bread and drizzle it with olive oil. You’ll want to use that bread to soak up all of the saucy goodness that you’re about to spoon on to your plate.

The cod will easily break apart into thick pieces and you’ll want to serve the fish, hot, with a healthy serving (or two) of puttanesca sauce.

Cod alla Puttanesca
*serves 4

Ingredients
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. of cod filets
1 x 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, recommended: Scalfani or Tuttoroso
2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2-3 anchovy filets, optional but recommended
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup pitted and sliced mixed Kalamata and Castelvetrano olives
1/4-1/3 cup of Muffaletta
3 tablespoons of capers, drained
2-3 tablespoons of minced fresh parsley
Salt to taste

Instructions
—Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add extra virgin olive oil, anchovy filets, garlic and red pepper
—Cook the above until the anchovies have melted into the oil and add the crushed tomatoes
—Stir the tomatoes with the oil, garlic and red pepper — add the mixed olives, muffaletta and the drained capers
—Simmer for 30 minutes and taste for salt; olives and capers contain A LOT OF SALT so chances are you wont need much but adjust as you need/like
—Add cod and move flame to medium low, cook for an additional 20-30 minutes until cod is tender and flaky
—Serve with bread, farro or another grain of choice