Spaghetti alla Puttanesca is a traditional Italian recipe (from Rome) for a classic dish of spaghetti served in a tomato sauce with olives, anchovy fillets and chilli flakes. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Italian version of: Spaghetti alla Puttanesca.
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Similar recipes are found in Italian cookery books, all mentioning Naples as a source. However, 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 'paghetti alla puttanesca come li fanno a Siracusa' (lit. 'spaghetti alla puttanesca as they make it in Syracuse'). The sauce became popular in the 1960s. The sauce alone is called sugo alla puttanesca in Italian.
The etymology of name 'puttanesca' is debated. Because puttana roughly means 'whore' or 'prostitute' and puttanesca is an adjective derived from that word, the dish may have been invented in one of many bordellos in the Naples working-class neighbourhood of Quartieri Spagnoli as a quick meal taken between servicing clients. Alternatively, food historian Jeremy Parzen suggests: "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'.
Ingredients:
500g fresh spaghetti, or 400g dried spagheti
Olive oil
2–4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 red chillies, finely chopped (add more if you like it spicy)
5 anchovy fillets (about 50g), finely chopped
120g black olives, pitted
1 x 400g tin of tomatoes (if you have fresh tomatoes [particularly plum tomatoes], they make a delicious addition)
2 tbsp capers
Generous handful fresh parsley or fresh basil to garnish, coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
Method:
Set a pan over medium heat. Once hot add 2 tbsp olive oil and use to fry the garlic and chillies for 1–2 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent the garlic from sticking or burning.
Add the anchovies, olives and capers to the pan along with the tin of chopped tomatoes. Increase the heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Season with salt and freshly-ground black pepper and cook, unlidded, for about 15 minutes.
Whilst the sauce is cooking, bring a large pan of water to a boil. Salt it generously and add your fresh spaghetti. Cook for 2-3 minutes (or as the packet advises) until al dente. Test that it’s ready before draining. Alternatively, cook your dried spaghetti according to the packet instructions.
Transfer the spaghetti to the pan with the sauce, tossing to ensure each strand is covered.
Turn into a warmed serving bowl, garnish with the coarsely-chopped parsley or basil leaves and serve immediately.
