Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Pasta Puttanesca is a traditional Italian spaghetti dish made with garlic, anchovies, olives, parsley, and tomatoes.

The name

The name originated in Naples after the local women of easy virtue. Puttana means lady of the night (i.e. a prostitute), but it is not known why it has such a name. One possibility is that the name a reference to the sauce's hot and spicy flavour and smell. Another is that the dish was offered to prospective customers at a low price to entice them into the house of ill repute. According to chef Jeff Smith of the Frugal Gourmet, its name came from the fact that it was a quick cheap meal that prostitutes could prepare between customers.

A more thorough story about this dish comes from Diane Seed in her "Top 100 Pasta Sauces". (p.20) ISBN 0-89815-232-1. She says:

My introduction to this famous pasta dish occurred when I overheard two elderly priests discussing the pros and cons of Spaghetti alla Puttanesca ("Whore's spagehtti") as they deliberated over the menu in a Neapolitan restaurant. Made of ingredients found in most Italian larders, this is also known as 'Spaghetti alla Buona Donna' - or 'Good Woman's Spaghetti' - which can be misleading if one is not familiar with the ironic insult 'figlio d'una buona donna' - son of a good woman.

To understand how this sauce came to get its name we have to look back to the 1950's when brothels in Italy were state-owned. They were known as case chiuse or 'closed houses' because the shutters had to be kept permanently closed to avoid offending the sensibilities of neighbors or innocent passers-by. Conscientious Italian housewives always shop at the local market every day to buy really fresh food, but the 'civil servants' were only allowed one day per week for shopping and their time was valuable. Their speciality became a sauce made quickly from odds and ends in the larder and now invaluable to us all, by whatever degree of virtue, when time and ingredients are in short supply.

Traditional Ingredients

Here are the main ingredients of Pasta Puttanesca, including the pasta and sauce. There are many different recipes for Pasta Puttanesca, but they always have these main ingredients;

• Spaghetti(alternatively, bucatini is used)
• Olive oil
• Olives (a must, with the anchovies they give the dish its signature saltiness)
• Garlic
• Anchovies
• Chilli
• Tomatoes
• Parsley

See also

• Italian cuisine

External links

Recipes for Pasta Puttanesca

• Recipe at sneakykitchen.comIncludes a brief description
• Recipe from the BBC
• deliaonline.comThe recipe from Delia
• www.homebistro.cominformation about many other pasta dishes
• Food Network Encyclopedia entry has a short description of pasta puttanesca.
• Puttanesca sauce a simple recipe.
• Pasta Puttanesca a more in-depth recipe.