White Bean Puttanesca Recipe with Garlic Bread (2024)

This white bean puttanesca recipe is deliciously savory and salty, with capers, briney olives, artichoke hearts, and creamy white beans. I like to serve it with easy, homemade garlic bread for dipping.

I feel like I crossed a milestone this month.

I have begun…to meal plan. And not just scribble down a few rough ideas on the back of an envelope on my way out the door to the market, either. No. I’m sitting down (at my coffee table, so don’t take me for too rigid a woman), for about twenty minutes, on Sunday afternoons and thinking about recipes. It’s something I did years ago when I lived in Philadelphia and then in Seattle — something I was much better about when I was also better about budgeting and wearing non-yoga pants more than three times per week, but now, I’m getting back into the swing of things.

The recipes, you’d think, would be the easy part. What am I in the mood for? But think of those times when someone asks you to name your favorite books…or your favorite movies…and how you draw a complete and utter blank. It’s kind of like that with the recipe ideas. So to keep me from the same ol’ “…uuuhhhh….taco salad?” song-and-dance, I’ve come up with a system of saving the recipes that I find online during the week in a Google Doc, and then using that to narrow down my list.

All through the work week, whenever I find a recipe on a blog (or Pinterest, or anywhere, really) that looks and sounds absolutely delicious, I just quickly copy the URL and paste it into a document or, for Mac/iPhone users — into NotePad, because the two sync. You could also Pin it, if you’re active on Pinterest, but I don’t know, Pinterest really makes me feel all the feelings, and none of them are anything but absolutelydrowning in overwhelm. Point is: at the end of the week, you simply go through all the recipes you’ve collected, and pick out the ones you’d like to make. It’s a little work in advance, and it pays off.

So. About this dish. Took me long enough to get here, didn’t it?

White bean puttanesca. WITH GARLIC BREAD. It was inspired by two things: 1.) Chicken Puttanesca in a Foil Packet — a recipe in the latest issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine, and 2.) The garlic bread that I ate at Buca di Beppo on Saturday night. Was I interested in the Puttanesca? Of course, sure. Was I interested in creating a saucy something-or-other in which to dip garlic bread? Next question.

How To Make This White Bean Puttanesca Recipe – Step By Step

• Make the Puttanesca: Add the olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté, stirring frequently, until just beginning to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and stir constantly for 30 seconds. Add the diced tomatoes and bring the pan to a simmer.
• Add the cannellini beans and cook for 5 minutes.
• Stir in the artichoke hearts, olives, and capers. Simmer for 5 more minutes. Taste for seasonings,
• Make the garlic bread: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Slice the baguette in half length-wise, and then in half width-wise, to create four 5- or 6-inch sections. Place the baguette pieces on a baking sheet cut-side-up.
• In a small skillet or saucepan, heat the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir constantly to ensure that it doesn’t burn. Sauté until just faintly brown, fragrant, and soft, 1 to 2 minutes, lowering the heat if necessary so that the garlic does not burn. Remove the pan from heat immediately and pour the garlic oil into a small bowl. **Note that you want to to infuse the oil and to soften the garlic, but it does burn very easily, so feel free to lower the heat or remove the pan from heat occasionally.
• In a small bowl, combine the oregano, red pepper flakes, and salt.
• Using a pastry brush, brush each slice of baguette evenly with the infused oil. Sprinkle liberally with the oregano-pepper mixture. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Serve immediately: Divide the puttanesca among four serving bowls. Garnish each with 2 tablespoons of fresh basil and 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese. Serve with garlic bread.

White Bean Puttanesca Recipe – Perfect For Meal Planning

This dish is part of my third full week of meal planning. It follows all of my meal planning guidelines. According to, well OK yes, just me, the recipe must be:

1. Healthful (in accordance with my own personal standards, which are admittedly not crazy daisy high, but are reasonable, flexible, and realistic). In general, I like to cook in a wholesome, light way at home. I reserve the more over-the-top, extra-cheesy, ooey-gooey meals for restaurants — unless I’m entertaining.

2. Prep to plate in under an hour. This, unless I’m making something on a weekend, is entirely reasonable. Most meals that I make Monday through Friday can be prepared in thirty minutes.

3. No crazy ingredients. None of the recipe ingredients can be things that I wouldn’t use for at least five other recipes that I can think of off the top of my head. OR, if I do need an exotic spice, I MIGHT be more likely to buy it IF I can buy it in a smaller quantity at the bulk spice bin at Whole Foods — which, by the way, was a genius invention.

4. Budget-friendly. This is something that I’ll focus on MOST of the time. Say, 98% of the time. There will be weeks when I’m going to buy the $15/lb salmon or the $16/lb sea scallops, so I’m just basically preparing both of us mentally and emotionally now.

Cannellini Beans – Perfect For This Puttanesca Recipe

I chose to use cannellini beans here because they seemed to be more cost effective and much faster to cook with, and I love the way that they combine with the kalamata olives, artichokes, and diced tomatoes texturally to form a bean salad of sorts. I wanted to say hot bean salad, but that doesn’t sound so good, does it? The sauce for all of this is made simply from onions and lots of garlic sautéed in olive oil, and a can of undrained diced tomatoes. It’s bright and slightly salty in that lovely Mediterranean way olives are, and made a teeny bit briney from the addition of capers.

Delicious and Easy Garlic Bread!

The garlic bread is as straight-forward and perfect as when my mother used to split hamburger buns, lay them open face on a baking sheet, butter them to high heaven, and then broil them until the tops blistered. This time, though, I used garlic-infused olive oil. A halved baguette, cut into five-inch sections, brushed with oil, sprinkled with red pepper flakes and oregano, and then baked. I obviously burnt mine about a million times, then burnt my hands. Then the oven door fell off — true story. Then I took these photographs anyway, and ate this meal sitting in Sabrina’s room on the floor where I took the photographs. Isn’t that precisely the way it would go?

Check Out These Other Delicious Mediterranean Recipes

Mediterranean Grilled Shrimp and Vegetables (and the Perfect Summer Wine Pairing!)

Mediterranean Chicken and Artichoke Salad

Sourdough Panzanella with Roasted Red Peppers and White Beans

Greek Chicken Fajitas with Broccoli Rabe

Mediterranean Pasta by Well Plated

Everyday Mediterranean Salad by Gimme Some Oven

If you have tried this White Bean Puttanesca recipe, or any other recipe on my blog, then please rate it and let me know how it turned out in the comments below! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious, healthy, family friendly food!