Pasta with anchovies and tomatoes,Pasta with Alici and Pomodorini
To prepare a tasty and delicious pasta dish in just a few minutes, this pasta with anchovies, capers, and cherry tomatoes is perfect.

With just a few ingredients and in just a few minutes—just the time it takes to cook the pasta—you can prepare and serve a very flavorful dish.

Since the ingredients are naturally savory and rich in flavor, I didn’t use salt in the sauce and very little in the pasta cooking water.

Anchovy and Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe

Ingredients for 2 people

200g =2 cups dry pasta (penne,spaghetti,orecchiette,fusilli…)

A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

1 clove of garlic

5 anchovies

10 salted capers

8 cherry tomatoes

4 sun-dried tomatoes

1 small Onion

Cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters, the sun-dried tomatoes in half, and slice the onion.

Bring the water to a boil and, when it boils, add the pasta.

Meanwhile, in a pan, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil and sauté a clove of garlic and onion.

Add 5 anchovy fillets.

When the anchovies begin to dissolve, add the capers, cherry tomatoes, and dried tomatoes, along with two ladles of the pasta cooking water.

Continue cooking over medium-low heat, adding a ladle of water if necessary; you don’t want the sauce to dry out.

Let everything heat over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finish cooking “risottando “the pasta in the pan with the sauce (that is, drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the sauce), stirring and adding a little of the cooking water till it’s totally absorbed(just like when making risotto).

This method allows you to better bind the sauce by taking advantage of the starches released by the pasta during cooking, so you don’t end up with a sauce that’s too watery.

Plate and serve immediately, piping hot, with a sprinkling of grated pecorino cheese.

Your pasta with anchovies, capers, and cherry tomatoes is ready. Enjoy your meal!

Tip:

If you’re reading an Italian menu or recipe book, remember that in Italy, we have two names for anchovies: Alici and acciughe refer to the same fish (Engraulis encrasicolus), but the difference lies in the processing method and, sometimes, the size: alici generally refers to fresh fish, marinated or preserved in oil, while acciughe refers to whole fish preserved in salt and which has undergone a maturation process. The term “alice” comes from southern Italy, while “acciuga” has Latin and Ligurian origins, with the former often used for younger fish and the latter for larger specimens.