Italian · Authentic-ish Italian
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
402 kcal a serving, against 576 for the traditional version. That is 174 kcal off, or 30%, with 14.3g of protein. Serves 4. 25 minutes.
What the traditional version is
A generous slick of olive oil, anchovy fillets melted into it, garlic and chilli, olives and capers, then tomatoes cooked hard and fast. No cheese, and this time the purists are right.
What changed, and what each change costs
60ml of olive oil down to 20ml
Oil is 884 kcal per 100g, which makes 60ml about 530 kcal before anything else goes in the pan. This is the whole saving.
What it costs you. Less slick, and the sauce won't cling the same way. You get most of it back by finishing with pasta water, which emulsifies with what oil is left and does a surprisingly good impression of the rest.
100g of black olives down to 60g
Olives are mostly oil in a different shape, at about 116 kcal per 100g.
What it costs you. Fewer olives, which is a genuine loss in a dish where they're a headline ingredient. Chop them rougher so they read as bigger.
Keep every anchovy, caper and chilli flake
30g of anchovy is about 60 kcal and does more for this dish than anything else in the pan. Capers are 23 kcal per 100g. There is nothing to gain by touching either.
What it costs you. None, and this is one of the few times in the book I'll say that. Both are already close to free.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 576 | 402 |
| Protein | 17g | 14.3g |
| Fat | 20.2g | 8.9g |
| Saturated fat | 3.1g | 1.5g |
| Carbohydrate | 81.8g | 66.2g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 3g | 3.6g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Italian prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. gluten, fish.
The method is in the book
The best value swap in the chapter. It loses about a third of the calories and, of all the recipes in this book, it's the one where I'd struggle to pick the light version out in a blind tasting. Make this one.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Italian, along with 59 more. It is not out yet. The swap kit is free in the meantime.