This 10-Minute Gordon Ramsay Pasta Recipe Saves My Weeknights

My pantry is my secret to quick weeknight meals. I stock it with cans, jars, bottles, and boxes, and it feeds me several times a week when I really don’t want to run to the store. 

I run through an internal decision tree for my pantry meals. For example, if I want to use canned black beans as my base, I might go with refried bean and cheese tostadas or tacos, black bean soup, or a bean and grain bowl situation, depending on what else I have.

Canned tuna is a top-three pantry staple for me, and my canned tuna decision tree goes like this: do I have some salad greens and potatoes? If so, I’m making Niçoise salad. If not, do I have bread and cheese? If so, I’m making tuna melts. If not, I know for sure that I always have pasta, olives, and canned tomatoes, in which case I’m making tuna puttanesca. If I don’t have pasta and canned tomatoes, I am in Trader Joe’s-freezer-meals-for-dinner territory.)

Classic pasta puttanesca does not contain tuna, but it’s a common variation, and I like that the tuna adds a good dose of protein without taking over the flavor of the dish. Once you’ve made pasta puttanesca a few times, you really don’t need a recipe, but I recently tried a variation of the dish that made me think about it a little differently.

Gordon Ramsay’s Tuna Puttanesca With Black Olive Gremolata is from his cookbook, Ramsay in 10. This recipe takes longer than 10 minutes to make, but not much more. He tries to get a little fancy with his “black olive gremolata,” but the dish is simple.

How I Make Gordon Ramsey’s Tuna Puttanesca

For four servings, you’ll need:

• 12 ounces dried paccheri or fusilli
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 4 anchovy fillets
• One (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• Finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1/3 cup pitted black olives (such as Kalamata)
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon small capers
• One (5-ounce) can tuna, drained
• Salt and pepper

Start by boiling a pot of salted water. Ramsay recommends filling an electric kettle and bringing the water to a boil before pouring it into a large saucepan and adding salt—this speeds things up. Add the pasta and start your timer based on the “al dente” directions on the box.

While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, pepper flakes, and anchovy fillets. Cook, stirring, for a minute or so, until the garlic smells delicious and the anchovies have mostly dissolved into the oil. Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer, cover, and reduce the heat until the pasta is ready.

Meanwhile, stir together the parsley, olives, and lemon zest. This is your gremolata.

When the pasta is al dente, reserve half a cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta well. Add the pasta to the tomato sauce along with a splash of the pasta water and toss together. Stir in the lemon juice, capers, and tuna, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a little more pasta water if the sauce is too thick. Serve topped with the gremolata.

How I Make Gordon Ramsay’s Easy Tuna Puttanesca Even Easier

Ramsay’s recipe relies on fresh pasta to cut down on cooking time. That’s nice for him, but my local grocery store does not carry fresh pasta. Fresh pasta also takes this out of the “pantry dinner” category. However, I loved his suggestion to use a wide, tubular pasta shape, so I swapped in rigatoni for my usual spaghetti.

I also didn’t feel like opening an oily anchovy tin (sometimes the struggle is real), so I substituted a glug of fish sauce. Anchovy paste in a tube is another great option. 

Finally, the first time I made this recipe, I found the olive gremolata a bit fussy, and Ramsay calls for a paltry six olives. My dear sir, I ate six olives as a snack while making this recipe. I increased the amount and added them to the tomato sauce, skipping the lemon zest altogether and garnishing the dish with parsley (another easy ingredient to skip).

With these tweaks, this recipe is within the margin of error for a 10-minute dinner. Most importantly, it’s extremely delicious, and the kind of thing you can make with your eyes closed once you know the drill.