Pairing Wine With Puttanesca

Italian Pasta & Wine Pairing

by Chris Link  ·  Updated June 2026

Holly had spaghetti puttanesca for the first time when we were traveling in Italy, and she loved it. At the time neither of us knew much about wine, so she just ordered whatever table wine the restaurant brought out with it. It was fine — but now that we’ve learned more, this is one of those dishes where the right wine makes a real difference, and next time we go back to Italy, she’ll know exactly what to order alongside it.

Puttanesca is a bold, intensely flavored pasta sauce from Naples — tomatoes, garlic, olives, capers, and anchovies, all cooked down together into something salty, briny, rich, and deeply savory. It’s one of the most flavor-packed pasta dishes you’ll ever eat, and it needs a wine that can keep up. This is not the dish for a delicate white or a light rosé. You need a red wine with real acidity, enough structure to handle the salt and the bold sauce, and enough fruit to stand next to the tomatoes.

Photo Credit – Emna Mizouni

Our Story

How Holly Fell in Love With Puttanesca in Italy

When you’re sitting at a small restaurant in Italy and the server just brings out whatever wine the kitchen is pouring that night, you don’t ask questions — you just drink it and enjoy the meal. That’s exactly what happened when Holly ordered puttanesca on our trip. The food was wonderful. The wine was perfectly fine. But we had no idea what we were drinking or why it worked as well as it did.

It wasn’t until we started getting more serious about wine that it clicked. What made that pairing work — even with a no-name table wine — was almost certainly the acidity. Italian house wines, especially from the south, tend to be high in acidity, and that’s exactly what puttanesca needs. The tomatoes, olives, capers, and anchovies are all acidic and briny, and a wine without enough acidity to match them will taste flat and dull by comparison.

So when we go back — and we will — Holly already knows what she’s ordering. Spaghetti puttanesca, and a glass of Chianti Classico or whatever the local red happens to be. This time she’ll understand why it works, and I think that’ll make the meal even better.

Why Acidity Matters

The One Thing That Makes or Breaks This Pairing

Puttanesca is built on bold, high-acid ingredients — tomatoes, capers, olives, and anchovies. Each one of those components is sharp, salty, or briny. When you pair a low-acid wine with a high-acid dish, the food makes the wine taste flat, thin, and lifeless. The dish wins and the wine disappears.

The solution is to match acidity with acidity. A wine with high acidity — like Chianti Classico, Barbera, or Montepulciano — holds its own next to the sauce. You still taste the wine. You still taste the food. The two work together instead of one canceling out the other.

Best Wines

The Best Wines to Pair With Puttanesca

I’ve kept this list focused on wines you can actually find at a wine shop or grocery store in the US. No obscure regional Italian varieties that require a specialty importer — just good, accessible bottles that deliver on the pairing.

Pairing Chart

Puttanesca Wine Pairing Chart

Puttanesca recipes vary — some are anchovy-heavy, some lean more on capers and olives, some have added protein like shrimp or tuna. Here’s how the wine choice shifts depending on what’s in the bowl.

Red Wine

Best Red Wines With Puttanesca

Red wine is the right call for classic puttanesca with anchovies. The bold, savory flavors of the sauce need a wine with structure, acidity, and enough personality to match them. Here’s the full list of what works and why.

• ▸Chianti Classico (Sangiovese, Tuscany) — The most classic and natural pairing. Sangiovese’s bright cherry acidity, earthy herbs, and slight tomato character are almost designed for tomato-based pasta. If there’s one bottle I’d point a beginner to for puttanesca, it’s a Chianti Classico. Ruffino Riserva Ducale (~$22) or Banfi Chianti Classico (~$18) are both easy to find at most wine shops.
• ▸Barbera d’Asti or Barbera d’Alba (Piedmont) — Possibly the most food-friendly red wine in Italy. Barbera has sky-high acidity, very soft tannins, and dark juicy fruit that cuts through the saltiness of capers and anchovies beautifully. It’s also incredibly affordable — Michele Chiarlo “Le Orme” Barbera d’Asti is around $15 and punches well above its weight.
• ▸Montepulciano d’Abruzzo — A rustic, earthy Italian red that’s one of the best pasta wine values on the market. Rich dark fruit, medium tannins, and reliable acidity. Casal Thaulero Montepulciano (~$12) is a grocery store staple that genuinely works with bold tomato sauces like puttanesca.
• ▸Nero d’Avola (Sicily) — A big, bold Sicilian red with dark fruit, a slightly spicy character, and earthy notes that work beautifully with anchovy-forward puttanesca. The Sicilian origin feels right given that puttanesca came from the south of Italy. Donnafugata Sherazade (~$18) is widely available and excellent.
• ▸Primitivo (Puglia) — Rich, jammy, and spicy — works especially well with a heavier, more anchovy-loaded puttanesca. Tormaresca Primitivo (~$14) is a solid everyday bottle. As noted above, California Zinfandel is made from the same grape and is a good substitute if Primitivo is hard to find.
• ▸Côtes du Rhône (Grenache blend, France) — The best non-Italian option. A Grenache-dominant Côtes du Rhône has herbal, peppery, red and dark fruit character with enough structure for the puttanesca. E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône (~$15) is one of the most reliable affordable red wines in the world and works well here.

White Wine

Can You Drink White Wine With Puttanesca?

White wine with classic puttanesca is a stretch — the anchovy and the bold tomato sauce push very hard toward red. But there are situations where white wine makes more sense: a lighter version of the dish without anchovies, a puttanesca made with shrimp or tuna, or a recipe where white wine is cooked into the sauce. In those cases, here’s what works.

• ▸Vermentino (Sardinia or Tuscany) — The best white wine option for puttanesca. Vermentino has a slightly bitter, herbal, citrus character with enough body and acidity to hold up to the bold sauce. It’s the white wine most likely to work even with anchovies in the dish. Santa Margherita makes a good Vermentino di Sardegna that’s widely available.
• ▸Pinot Grigio (crisp, Italian) — Works best with a lighter puttanesca — vegetarian version, or the dish made with shrimp. The acidity is there but the body is lighter, so it needs a less anchovy-heavy preparation to work well.
• ▸Barbera served slightly chilled — An unusual suggestion but one that bridges the red and white categories. In summer, a lightly chilled Barbera d’Asti (around 55–58°F) brings its acidity and fruit to the forefront and can actually work beautifully with a lighter puttanesca, almost behaving like a fuller-bodied white in terms of freshness.

Ordering in Italy

What to Order When You’re Actually in Italy

This section is written for Holly — and for anyone else who finds themselves in a restaurant in Naples, Rome, or anywhere in southern Italy with a plate of puttanesca in front of them and no idea what to ask for.

The honest answer is: order the house red. Italian house wines — especially in the south — are almost always high-acid, food-friendly, and paired instinctively with whatever the kitchen is cooking. It’s exactly what Holly was drinking in Italy without knowing it, and it worked. The “what grows together, goes together” principle is most reliable in the place where the dish actually comes from.

If you want to be more specific and order a named wine, here’s what to ask for depending on where you are:

• ▸In Naples or Campania — Ask for Aglianico or the local vino della casa (house wine). Aglianico is a bold, tannic southern Italian red that’s a natural match for the rich, anchovy-heavy puttanesca that Naples is famous for.
• ▸In Rome or Central Italy — Ask for a Chianti or any Sangiovese-based wine. You’ll find them on almost every wine list and they’re a natural pairing for tomato pasta.
• ▸In Sicily — Ask for Nero d’Avola or Nerello Mascalese. Both are local Sicilian reds with the structure and acidity to handle puttanesca beautifully.
• ▸Anywhere in Italy — When in doubt, just say “un rosso della casa” (a house red) and trust the kitchen. Italian restaurants know their local wines and the food they serve. The pairing will almost always work.

What to Avoid

Wines I’d Skip With Puttanesca

• ✕Low-acid reds — Merlot, soft Malbec, or any wine described as “smooth” and “easy drinking” without much structure. These wines taste flat and boring next to puttanesca. The sauce overpowers them completely and you’re left with a glass of something that tastes like nothing.
• ✕Very oaky, heavily extracted reds — A big, oaky California Cabernet Sauvignon or a heavily extracted Napa red can fight the anchovy and brine rather than complement them. The tannins can also make the salty elements of the dish taste harsh. Save the big Cabs for steak.
• ✕Delicate whites — A light Pinot Grigio, unoaked Chardonnay, or delicate Sauvignon Blanc will be completely lost next to classic puttanesca with anchovies. The sauce is just too bold and salty for a thin white to hold its own.
• ✕Sweet wines — Any wine with residual sweetness will clash badly with the saltiness of the capers and anchovies. Always go dry with puttanesca.

Favorite Pairings

What We’d Actually Order

FAQs

Puttanesca and Wine Pairing Questions

Final Takeaway

When In Doubt, Order Italian

Puttanesca is one of those dishes where staying in the same country as the food is the simplest and most reliable pairing strategy. Italian reds — Chianti, Barbera, Montepulciano, Nero d’Avola — have been pairing with tomato-based pasta for centuries because they’re built for it. The acidity, the earthiness, the rustic character all fit.

For cooking at home, Chianti Classico around $20 is the move. For a budget weeknight, Barbera d’Asti or Montepulciano d’Abruzzo around $12–$15 will get you most of the way there. And for the next trip to Italy — order the house red, enjoy the pasta, and this time you’ll know exactly why the pairing works so well.