Give this swordfish puttanesca recipe a try. The flavorful sauce will make your swordfish say en garde!!
We’ve always had a thing for puttanesca. It’s a special pasta sauce with a ton of umami based ingredients. It’s also a true example of cucina povera – cuisine that emerged due to poverty and necessity.
However, until recently, the idea of garnishing swordfish with puttanesca sauce seemed antithetical. Puttanesca is a sauce of the poor – a back alley recipe that, with pasta, creates a tasty but low budget weeknight meal. We’ve seen variations of the sauce served on bruschetta and topped on napolitano pizza. But serving the southern Italian sauce with a protein sounded downright, dare we say, American.
Our opinion changed once we ate sworfish puttanesca in the most American of cities, Las Vegas, at Evan Funke’s classic Italian restaurant Mother Wolf. While Italians typically grill proteins like swordfish with a little salt and pepper, Funke served the meaty fish atop a generous pool of puttanesca sauce. That sauce enhanced the fish – the salty of funk of the sauce married wonderfully with the agressively meaty fish.
After eating the dish in Vegas, we had just one thought – we need to create a tasty version of swordfish puttansca at home. The classic sauce is simple enough to make. It would just be a matter of cooking the fish and recreating the beautiful Southern Italian marriage between sauce and protein in our kitchen.
Ingredients
We developed this swordfish puttanesca recipe with swordfish and a selection of pantry products. Here’s everything you need to prepare the tasty dish in your kitchen:
Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.
How To Make Swordfish Puttanesca
This is a two step recipe. The first step is to make the puttanesca sauce and the second step involes grilling the swordfish. While the fish in the Mother Wolf version was probably grilled over a wood fire, we’ve found that grilling the fish in a pan, preferably a cast iron pan, works just fine at home. However, if you want to fire up your grill before you make the sauce, go for it.
After you gather the ingredients, begin by pitting and chopping the olives and chopping the anchovies.
Then, like most tomato sauce recipes, create a soffritto by sautéing the onions and garlic before adding the anchovies, olives and capers. You’ll want to sauté the onions until they’re translucent and then add the garlic, sautéing for just about a minute until the garlic is fragrant.
Add a small pinch of salt and pepper along the way to bring the flavor of the onions and garlic to life but not too much. There will be plenty of salt coming from the anchovies, olives and capers.
While sautéing the onions, moderately season the swordfish steaks with salt and pepper on both sides and allow them to rest in the refrigerator. You’ll remove them from fridge and start cooking them once the sauce is done.
Next, add the tomatoes and simmer the sauce. Start the mixture with plenty of water and let the mixture simmer over the smallest flame so that the flavors of the anchovies, olives and capers meld completely with the tomatoes.
Pro Tip
Add a half cup to a cup of water to the mixture during cooking if the sauce becomes too thick. You don’t want the mixture to burn.
After about an hour, let the sauce thicken to your desired consistency. When you reach that point, keep the sauce warm while you cook the swordfish. Once the sauce is done, heat the pan for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Once the pan is heated, add two or three tablespoons of olive oil. Heat the oil for 30 seconds and immediately add the swordfish steaks to the pan. Cook the swordfish steaks until they’re brown for about four minutes on each side.
Use a cake tester to measure the doneness of the fish. To do this, insert the tester in the fish for about five seconds. Remove it and touch the end. When the needle of the tester feels hot, the fish is done.
It’s now time to plate the dish. Start by spooning a pool of sauce over a flat plate.
Lay the swordfish steaks on top of the sauce and garnish with freshly torn basil leaves.
Serve and enjoy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Swordfish puttanesca is a dish that places grilled swordfish steak over spicy puttanesca sauce. It’s a simple recipe that totally works.
While swordfish puttanesca is Italian in spirit, the dish was probably first cooked in the United States.
Swordfish Steaks, Anchovies, Olives, Tomato Puree, Capers, Onion, Garlic, Olive Oil, Chili Flakes, Fresh Basil, Salt and Pepper
No. While swordfish puttanesca makes for an excellent party dish, it can also be a tasty weeknight meal.
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Pit the olives if necessary and then coarsely chop both the anchovies and olives.
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Heat a 10″/26cm frying pan over medium heat. Once heated, add two tablespoons of the olive oil to the pan. Once the oil is heated (about 30 seconds), add the onions. Sauté the onions until they’re translucent.
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Add the garlic to the pan and cook until just fragrant (about a minute). Add a small pinch of salt and pepper (to taste) to the garlic-onion mixture.
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Add the anchovies, olives and capers to the pan and sauté the mixture together for about two minutes. Optionally add the pepper flakes.
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Add the tomato puree and about a cup of water to the pan. Turn the heat to low and cook for about an hour. Add additional water if the mixture gets too thick.
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After an hour, keep cooking until the sauce gets thick. Once the sauce arrives at your desired thickness, cover the sauce to keep it warm or keep it over a small fire if it gets cool.
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About 5 minutes before the sauce is done, heat the skillet over a medium fire for about five minutes or until hot.
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Add the last tablespoon of olive oil and heat it for about 30 seconds. Add the swordfish steaks to the skillets, pressing them gently with a spatula so that they’re flat against the bottom of the pan.
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Cook the steaks until they’re done and brown on each side – about four minutes per side. Use a cake tester to make sure the steaks are done – the end of the tester should feel hot to the touch after inserting. Immediately place the finished steaks on a plate to rest – about one minute.
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Plate the dish by delicately spooning a pool of sauce on a flat round plate. Gently lay the cooked swordfish over the sauce and garnish with clipped or torn basil.
- You can use another meaty fish like monkfish or mahi-mahi instead of swordfish.
- You can use good quality canned pureed tomatoes or canned whole tomatoes that you crush yourself instead of passata.
