Pasta Puttanesca

Pasta Puttanesca (Italian "Pasta alla Puttanesca") is an Italian pasta dish made with a sauce named "sugo alla puttanesca". "Puttanesca" is an urban and a modern sauce, not dependent upon seasonal ingredients and reflecting the bounty of the market shop rather than the bounty of the garden.

The name

The sauce is not part of traditional Italian cuisine: the earliest reference to pasta “alla puttanesca” in print cited by the "Grande dizionario della lingua italiana" is Raffaele La Capria’s 1961 novel "Ferito a morte", 1961, and the professional association of pastamakers, Unione Industriali Pastai Italiani, agrees that the sauce became popular in the 1960s. [ [http://www.unipi-pasta.it/PASTADAY/CART2006/art1.htm Unione Industriali Pastai Italiani] ] . The name originated in Naples [The standard Italian spelling is "puttana".] after the local prostitutes [ [http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_17547,00.html Food Network] ] , "Pasta alla Puttanesca" meaning "Pasta the way a whore would make it". The reason why the dish gained such a name is debated, though the most obvious contrast— with "alla casalinga", simple "home-style" tomato sauce which has been "tarted up", as the English would say— is ignored for livelier original legends. One possibility is that the name is a reference to the sauce's hot, spicy flavour and pungent smell. Another is that the dish was offered to prospective customers at a low price to entice them into a brothelFact|date=February 2008. 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 book, "Top 100 Pasta Sauces" (p. 20) ISBN 0-89815-232-1. She says:

Another variation of the name's origin is that, as a derivative of the Italian "puttana", or "whore", this name literally can be translated as "smells like a whore." Whether this fragrance was from personal hygiene issues or shopping restrictions, no one can be certain.

Recipe

The ingredients for sugo alla puttanesca tend to be very easy to find, and are typically Mediterranean. To extra-virgin olive oil in a frying pan is added finely chopped cloves of garlic, (sometimes with onion), "peperoncino" (dried hot peppers) and anchovy fillets. When the anchovy fillets have 'dissolved', tomatoes (whole, chopped or as passata) are added and when the sauce comes to the boil chopped capers (best in salt; if in vinegar rinse under running water first) and stoned black olives are added. The sauce is reduced over heat and as a final touch, chopped parsley and fresh basil leaves are occasionally included.

Recipes may differ according to preferences; sugo alla puttanesca is a little salty (from salted anchovies and olives), spicy (from hot red peppers) and quite fragrant (with large amounts of garlic). Traditionally, the sauce is served with spaghetti ("spaghetti alla puttanesca"), although it may also be used with other dry pasta types like bucatini, linguine and vermicelli. The sauce is mixed with cooked pasta and minced parsley is sprinkled over the dish on the plate.

In popular culture

*Like many Italian foods, pasta puttanesca has gained some modern popularity as it has been featured on various cooking instruction programs on television, such as those hosted on the Food Network and Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.
*The dish was prepared by Baudelaire children in the first book in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events and mentioned throughout the series. It was also featured in the film centering around the first three books in the series.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.mediterrasian.com/delicious_recipes_pasta_puta.htm Pasta puttanesca recipe] with photo
* [http://www.italianchef.com/putta.html Recipe at The Italian Chef]
* [http://www.sneakykitchen.com/Recipes/pasta_puttanesca.htm Recipe at sneakykitchen.com] Includes a brief description
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/pastaputtanesca_11695.shtml Recipe from the BBC]
* [http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/pasta-puttanesca-tarts-spaghetti,1319,RC.html deliaonline.com] A recipe from cook Delia Smith
* [http://www.homebistro.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=119&CFID=4193993&CFTOKEN=56606963 www.homebistro.com] information about many other pasta dishes
* [http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/encyclopedia/termdetail/0,7770,3645,00.html Food Network Encyclopedia entry] has a short description of pasta puttanesca.
* [http://dreamfieldsfoods.com/linguine-puttanesca.html Low carb Linguine Puttanesca recipe] using healthy Dreamfields pasta.
* [http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=05ce6cb4a14ed4e1453ebcfb2f2e6a336fed0198 Video recipe by The Minimalist] Mark Bittman of the New York Times
* [http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=7111 Foodtv.ca's] Spaghetti alla puttanesca
* [http://www.ilovepasta.org/recipes/Pasta_Puttanesca.html I Love Pasta's] Pasta Puttanesca from the Pantry
* [http://italianfood.about.com/od/vegetablesauces/r/blr0044.htm About.com's] Puttanesca Sauce - - Sugo alla Puttanesca
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-whqUgUk64 Altered Food's] Spaghetti alla puttanesca video recipe
* [http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/encyclopedia/termdetail/0,7770,3645,00.html] Puttanesca Name