Fish Puttanesca | The Modern Proper (2024)

May 23, 2024

Puttanesca sauce—not just for pasta anymore! This briny, savory, easy white fish puttanesca recipe is so gorgeous and delicious, you’d never guess that it only takes about 30 minutes to make.

Fish Simmered in Puttanesca Sauce Is as Easy as It Is Delicious

Fish puttanesca is such an easy sell. White fish of your choosing poaches to deeply flavorful, tender perfection to make for an easy homemade puttanesca sauce in this super quick, company-worthy dinner that’s ready in a snap. If you’ve made puttanesca for pasta before, this recipe will seem really familiar. Cooking the fish in the sauce—you’ll nestle the filets of white fish into the sauce after it has simmered for a while—keeps the fish wonderfully moist as well as fully saturated with the salty, herby, powerful flavor of puttanesca. As to the type of white fish, well, that’s up to you! Cod, haddock or snapper are always good, and halibut is divine. The nice thing about the flexibility of this Italian seafood recipe is that you can truly go to the store with an open mind and just buy whatever is fresh and looks best that day.

Puttanesca Sauce—Briny, Tomato-y Heaven

The puttanesca sauce is all classic Italian goodness of the very best kind. Why? Because it comes mostly from pantry ingredients! If you’re new to puttanesca, it’s a wonderfully, brazenly full-bodied pasta sauce that hails from the bustling streets of Naples. And making it from mostly canned and jarred ingredients is exactly what you’re supposed to do—it’s not a shortcut, it’s a celebration of some of Italy’s finest culinary preserves! Anchovies, packed in oil and salt. Capers, pickled in that delicious brine. Olives and of course, tomatoes! Picked at peak ripeness and canned. Add a little wine, and some olive oil (or butter) and you’re in puttanesca heaven. Classic puttanesca ingredients are so easy to keep on hand, which means that when you get a hankering for this recipe, you can usually just make a quick grocery run for some fish and zip back home to get cooking. Here’s everything you’ll need to make a truly wonderful puttanesca sauce:

• Garlic

• Anchovies

• White wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio

• Canned whole tomatoes

• Oregano

• Thyme

• Black or castelvetrano olives

• Capers

How To Make Fish Puttanesca

Now you’ve got a really solid grasp of what exactly puttanesca is, you’re ready to use that heady sauce to cook some fish to delicious, flakey perfection. Here’s how to make fish puttanesca:

1. Make the puttanesca sauce! Be sure to use a skillet big enough to hold all of the sauce and the four pieces of fish, too.

2. Put the fish in the sauce! Once all of the puttanesca ingredients are in the skillet and have had about 10 minutes to simmer their way into cohesion, you’ll carefully nestle the pieces of fish into the sauce. Tongs are very handy for this job.

3. Cook the fish in the sauce! You’ll move the pan (carefully) to the oven now. It doesn’t need to be covered, but do keep an eye on the fish. Depending on the type of fish you’ve chosen and the thickness of the filets (thicker pieces take longer) the cook time will vary quite a bit. Just watch for signs of flakiness and pull it as soon as you suspect doneness.

4. Eat the delicious fish puttanesca! This is the easy part, clearly. Serve it simply with a big green salad and some good bread, and you’ll be having yourself quite a feast.

Tools You’ll Need

• Deep ovenproof skillet

• Wooden spoon

• Can opener

More Easy Seafood Recipes to Try

• Grilled Tilapia Tacos

• Easy Niçoise Salad

• Spicy Fish Tacos

• Salmon Sushi Bowl

There’s Nothing Fishy About How Awesome this Recipe Is

If you don’t make a “nothing fishy” joke, did you even share a fish recipe? It’s impossible to say, but as you can see, we’re playing it safe. All jokes aside, though, we really hope that you’re into this fish puttanesca! It feels like a “make all the time” recipe to us, and we hope it earns a spot in your rotation, too. Let us know how you like it, OK? Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!