One-pan puttanesca is a pantry-friendly dinner you can always rely on

Adding white fish to her puttanesca recipe shows Ann Maloney that the sauce can do so much more

Puttanesca is an easy-to-make dish with ingredients that can be made from pantry and refrigerator ingredients (Scott Suchman/The Washington Post)

Most of us who cook nearly every night have an easy-to-make dish or two that we prepare from memory. Bonus: when that dish can be made from ingredients that we almost always have in our pantry and refrigerator.

Puttanesca falls into the category for me. I rarely make it exactly the same way.

Tinned tomatoes and anchovies, jarred capers and briny kalamata olives almost always form the base of the sauce, which then gets a sprinkling of dry spices, such as oregano and crushed red pepper flakes, or maybe basil. Most often, I add fresh onion or shallot and garlic, but I’ve even used dried minced onion and garlic in a pinch. If all I have is pimento-stuffed green olives, I’ve tossed those in there in place of the kalamata. No anchovies? I’ve used sardines.

The one-pot sauce is cheap, fast and delivers big flavour. How many dishes you can say that about?

Usually, I toss it together in about 15 minutes, heat it up and spoon it over spaghetti. This recipe for halibut puttanesca reminded me that the sauce can do so much more. After making this, I’ve started using it as a base to cook other proteins.

I enjoyed it with the halibut, as suggested here, but any white flaky fish will do, including snapper or mahi mahi. The recipe recommends swordfish. I’ve tried it with prawns, too. Delicious.

It’s great a way to lean into frozen seafood, which often is more readily available and less expensive than fresh. Joe Yonan has written that he sometimes adds cannellini beans or chickpeas to it. I haven’t tried that yet, but it sounds like a winner to me.

I suggest making the sauce in an ovenproof frying pan, nestling the fish in the sauce and then popping the pan into the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes – just until the fish is cooked through and flaky.

That’s all it takes for this big-shouldered sauce, with its murky origin story, to quickly add lots of flavour to any mild protein. This then also allows me to eat it with or without pasta.

If you’ve got it handy, sprinkle the platter with parsley leaves to add freshness and brightness.

Halibut puttanesca

Halibut is nestled into the sauce and ready to go in the oven (Scott Suchman/The Washington Post)

This quick, pantry-friendly take on puttanesca sauce is one you’ll want to keep in your back pocket because while it’s great with halibut, as well as cod, mahi-mahi, striped bass or swordfish, it’s also terrific with chicken, pork chops and fried tofu – or simply spooned atop pasta. Briny anchovies, capers and olives add big flavour. Tinned tomatoes make it easy to make in any season. Serve with bread so you can sop up the sauce, and a simple green salad, if you like.

Time: 35 minutes

Serves: 4

How to store: Refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Ingredients:

4 (110-170g) skinless halibut fillets, 3cm thick

¼ tsp fine salt

½ tsp finely ground black pepper

60ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1 shallot (about 60g), minced

5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 (60g) can anchovies in oil, drained and chopped

2 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 (410g) can diced tomatoes

90g (about 20) pitted whole kalamata olives

60g capers, rinsed

20g fresh parsley leaves

Method:

1. Position the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 190C. Sprinkle the halibut with salt and pepper.

2. In a large, oven-safe, nonstick frying pan, combine the oil, shallot, garlic, anchovies, oregano and pepper flakes, if using. Set the pan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring, until the shallot begins to soften, about 4 minutes.

3. Stir in the tomatoes and their juice, olives and capers, then nestle the halibut into the sauce. Raise the heat to medium-high and bring the sauce to a simmer.

4. Transfer the uncovered pan to the oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the fish flakes apart when gently prodded with a paring knife and registers 50C on an instant-read thermometer.

5. Using a spatula, transfer the halibut to a serving platter. Stir the sauce to recombine, then spoon it over the halibut. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve, family-style.

Nutrition information per serving | calories: 342; total fat: 21g; saturated fat: 3g; cholesterol: 65mg; sodium: 1,118mg; carbohydrates: 10g; dietary fibre: 2g; sugar: 4g; protein: 26g.

This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.

Recipe adapted from More Mediterranean (America’s Test Kitchen, 2021).

© The Washington Post