Spaghetti alla puttanesca
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 A plate of spaghetti alla puttanesca |
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| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Alternate name(s) | pasta alla puttanesca, pasta puttanesca |
| Place of origin | Italy |
| Region or state | Campania |
| Creator(s) of the dish | Restaurateur Sandro Petti |
| Dish details | |
| Course served | main |
| Serving temperature | hot |
| Main ingredient(s) | pasta olives tomatoes anchovies capers |
| Variations | spaghetti alla puttanesca with tuna fish |
Spaghetti alla puttanesca (whore's spaghetti) is a spicy, tangy and somewhat salty Italian pasta dish that culinary experts regard as modern and reflects the bounty of the market rather than the garden. The ingredients are inexpenive, easy to find and typically Mediterranean. Italians refer to the sauce as sugo alla puttanesca.
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[edit] Origin
The earliest reference to this recipe in print, cited by the Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, is Raffaele La Capria’s 1961 novel Ferito a morte. Also, The Unione Industriali Pastai Italiani (the Professional Union of Italian Pasta Makers) says the sauce became popular in the 1960s.[1]
[edit] Sandro Petti's claim
According to Annarita Cuomo, writer for Il Golfo, a newspaper serving the Italian islands of Ischia and Procida, sugo alla puttanesca was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of Rancio Fellone, a famous Ischian restaurant and nightspot.[2]
The moment of inspiration came, writes Cuomo, when near closing one evening, Petti found a group of hungry friends sitting at one of his tables. Petti was low on ingredients and told them he didn't have enough to make them a meal. They complained that it was late and they were hungry. "Facci una puttanata qualsiasi" or “make any kind of garbage,” they insisted. (In this usage, puttanata is a noun meaning garbage or something worthless even though it derives from the Italian word for whore, puttana.)
At the time, 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.
[edit] Diane Seed's Theory
Another story about this dish's origin comes from author and chef Diane Seed in her book, Top 100 Pasta Sauces (p. 20) ISBN 0-89815-232-1:
| “ | 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 spaghetti") 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.[3] To understand how this sauce came to get its name, one must consider the 1950s 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 usually shop at the local market every day to buy fresh food, but the 'civil servants' were only allowed one day per week for shopping, and their time was valuable. Their specialty became a sauce made quickly from odds and ends in the larder. |
” |
[edit] Jeff Smith's theory
According to chef Jeff Smith of the Frugal Gourmet, it was a quick, cheap meal that prostitutes could prepare between customers.[4]
[edit] Basic recipe
Chopped garlic, diced onions and anchovies are sautéd in olive oil. Chopped chili peppers, black olives, capers and diced tomatoes are added along with salt and black pepper to taste. The cook then reduces this mixture by simmering anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes depending on the amount of sauce being prepared. Once cooked, it's poured over spaghetti cooked al dente. The final touch is a topping of parsley.[5]
Some cooks add either precooked tuna or salmon to the sugo just before pouring over pasta to provide protein. Others serve protein on the side.
Recipes may differ according to preferences. In most cases, however, the sugo is a little salty (from the anchovies), spicy (from the peppers) and quite fragrant (from the garlic). Traditionally, the sauce is served with spaghetti, although it also goes well with bucatini, linguine and vermicelli.
For a full recipe, see the Wikibooks entry for Spaghetti alla puttanesca.
[edit] References
- ^ Unione Industriali Pastai Italiani
- ^ Annarita Cuomo's story on the origin of pasta alla puttanesca
- ^ The usual Italian phrase is "figlio di buona donna" "son of good woman" (See for example Dizionario Italiano Garzanti). The inclusion of the "d'una" ("of a"), while not ungrammatical, is probably influenced by "son of a good woman" being the English equivalent.
- ^ Smith, Jeff (1986). ISBN 0-688-05852-3.
- ^ Recipe on Mediterrasian.com
[edit] External links
- Recipe at The Italian Chef
- Recipe at sneakykitchen.comIncludes a brief description
- Recipe from the BBC
- deliaonline.com A recipe from cook Delia Smith
- www.homebistro.com information about many other pasta dishes
- Food Network Encyclopedia entry has a short description of pasta puttanesca.
- Low carb Linguine Puttanesca recipe using healthy Dreamfields pasta.
- Video recipe by The Minimalist Mark Bittman of the New York Times
- Foodtv.ca'sSpaghetti alla puttanesca
- I Love Pasta's Pasta Puttanesca from the Pantry
- About.com's Puttanesca Sauce - - Sugo alla Puttanesca
- Altered Food's Spaghetti alla puttanesca video recipe
- Rad's PASTA Rad's Nuclear Grade Puttanesca
- [1] Puttanesca Name
