Puttanesca

''Spaghetti alla puttanesca'' (; in Italian) is an Italian pasta dish invented in Naples in the mid-20th century and made typically with tomatoes, olive oil, olives, anchovies, chili peppers, capers, and garlic—with vermicelli or spaghetti pasta.

Origin

Various recipes in Italian cookbooks dating back to the 19th century describe pasta sauces very similar to a modern puttanesca under different names. One of the earliest dates from 1844, when Ippolito Cavalcanti, in his ''Cucina teorico-pratica'', included a recipe from popular Neapolitan cuisine, calling it ''Vermicelli all'oglio con olive capperi ed alici salse''. After some sporadic appearances in other Neapolitan cookbooks, in 1931 the '' Touring Club Italiano's'' ''Guida gastronomica d'Italia'' lists it among the gastronomic specialties of Campania, calling it "Maccheroni alla marinara", although the proposed recipe is close to that of a modern puttanesca sauce. In Naples, this type of pasta sauce commonly goes under the name ''aulive e chiappariell'' (olives and capers).

The dish under its current name first appears in gastronomic literature in the 1960s. The earliest known mention of pasta ''alla puttanesca'' is in Raffaele La Capria’s ''Ferito a Morte'' (''Mortal Wound''), a 1961 Italian novel which mentions "''spaghetti alla puttanesca come li fanno a Siracusa'' (spaghetti alla puttanesca as they make it in Syracuse)".The dictionary entry is cited in Jeremy Parzen
‘The origins of Sugo alla puttanesca?’
''Do Bianchi'', 13 January 2008, an article which supplied a number of the sources used here. The sauce became popular in the 1960s, according to the Professional Union of Italian Pasta Makers.

Nonetheless, the 1971 edition of the '' Cucchiaio d’argento'' (''The Silver Spoon''), one of Italy's most prominent cookbooks, has no recipe with the name ''puttanesca'', but two recipes that are similar: The Neapolitan ''spaghetti alla partenopea'', is made with anchovies and generous quantities of oregano; while ''spaghetti alla siciliana'' is distinguished by the addition of green peppers. Still again there is a Sicilian style popular around Palermo that includes olives, anchovies and raisins.

In a 2005 article from ''Il Golfo''—a daily newspaper serving the Italian islands of Ischia and Procida—Annarita Cuomo asserted that ''sugo alla puttanesca'' was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of ''Rancio Fellone'', a famous Ischian restaurant and nightspot. According to Cuomo, Petti's moment of inspiration came when—near closing one evening—Petti found a group of customers sitting at one of his tables. He was low on ingredients and told them he did not have enough to make them a meal. They complained that it was late and they were hungry, saying "''Facci una puttanata qualsiasi''," meaning something like "make for us whatever the fuck you got!" Petti had nothing more than four tomatoes, two olives and some capers—the basic ingredients for the ''sugo'', "So I used them to make the sauce for the spaghetti," Petti told Cuomo. Later, Petti included this dish on his menu as ''spaghetti alla puttanesca''.

Etymology

Because "''puttana''" means roughly "whore" or "prostitute" and ''puttanesca'' is an adjective derived from that word, there is a theory that the dish was invented in one of many bordellos in the Naples working-class neighbourhood of Quartieri Spagnoli. Alternatively, food historian Jeremy Parzen suggests the name has more to do with the practical use of "puttanesca" in Italian than with its literal definition: "Italians use puttana (and related words) almost the way we use ''shit'', as an all-purpose profanity, so ''pasta alla puttanesca'' might have originated with someone saying, essentially, 'I just threw a bunch of ''shit'' from the cupboard into a pan'."

Basic recipe

The sauce alone is called ''sugo alla puttanesca'' in Italian. Recipes may differ according to preferences; for instance, the Neapolitan version is prepared without anchovies, unlike the version popular in Lazio. Spices are sometimes added. In most cases, however, the ''sugo'' is a little salty (from the capers, olives, and anchovies) and quite fragrant (from the garlic). Traditionally, the sauce is served with spaghetti, although it is also paired with penne, bucatini, linguine, and vermicelli.

Garlic and anchovies (omitted in the Neapolitan version) are sautéed in olive oil. Chopped chili peppers, olives, capers, diced tomatoes, and oregano are added along with salt and black pepper to taste. The cook then reduces this mixture by simmering and pours it over spaghetti cooked al dente. The final touch is a topping of parsley.Recipe on the site for the ''Accademia Italiana della Cucina''

See also

* Spaghetti dishes
* Pasta dishes

Explanatory notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:puttanesca, Spaghetti alla
Neapolitan cuisine
Spaghetti dishes
Anchovy dishes
Olive dishes