Recipe: Yotam Ottolenghi's One-Pan Orecchiette Puttanesca

Chef Yotam Ottolenghi (best known for his cookbook Jerusalem) shares major cooking inspiration: a delicious orecchiette puttanesca recipe from his cookbook Flavor. Click here to watch Ottolenghi demonstrate this recipe during a virtual conversation with pastry chef Claire Saffitz. Make some pasta, drink some wine, and cook along with us — check out the recipe below!

One-Pan-Orecchiette-Puttanesca-Ottolenghi.jpg

Image credit: Jonathan Lovekin

Serves: 4

Ingredients

5 tablespoons olive oil

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained well and patted dry

2 teaspoons hot smoked paprika

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons tomato paste

2 cups parsley, roughly chopped

2 teaspoons lemon zest

3 tablespoons baby capers

¾ cup Nocellara olives (or other green olive), pitted and roughly chopped in half

9 ounces small, sweet cherry tomatoes

2 teaspoons superfine sugar

1½ teaspoons caraway seeds, lightly toasted and crushed

9 ounces dried orecchiette pasta

2 cups vegetable or chicken stock

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons water

Salt and black pepper

Directions

In a large sauté pan, for which you have a lid, combine 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, the garlic, chickpeas, paprika, cumin, tomato paste, and a half teaspoon salt and place on medium-high heat. Fry for 12 minutes, uncovered, stirring every now and then, until the chickpeas are slightly crisp; you may need to decrease the heat if they start to color too much. Remove one-third of the chickpeas and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the parsley, lemon zest, capers and olives. Add two-thirds of the parsley mixture to the sauté pan, along with the cherry tomatoes, sugar and caraway seeds, and cook for 2 minutes on medium-high heat, stirring often.

Add the pasta, stock, water and three-quarter teaspoon salt and bring to a simmer. Decrease the heat to medium, cover and cook for 12 to 14 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.

Stir the remaining parsley mixture into the pan, drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and garnish with the reserved fried chickpeas and a good grind of pepper. Serve at once.

Watch Ottolenghi make one-pan orecchiette puttanesca while in conversation with pastry chef Claire Saffitz.

Hero image description: The banner image at the top of the web page is a photograph of tomatoes placed on a textured wooden surface. The table surface is dark brown and the tomatoes, some still attached to a green vine, are bright red. Photo credit: Unsplash.

Orecchiette puttanesca image description: Aerial photograph of Ottolenghi's orecchiette puttanesca presented in a white pan, with a portion of the pasta in a small bowl off to the right. The dishes are placed on a marble surface with a white and blue and blue cloth napkin folded in the bottom left corner of the image. Photo credit: Jonathan Lovekin, featured for Good Morning America.