People like to say that this pasta derived its name from Neapolitan ladies of the night, as it was a quick and easy dish to make while working. There is however no historical evidence to support this saucy tale, and the name “puttanesca” (puttan means prostitute in Italian, but is also a general all-purpose vulgarism), doesn’t seem to have been used before the 60s at all, although recipes for the sauce can be found throughout the nineteenth century under far more boring titles like “pasta with olive and capers.”
It is certain however that puttanesca is an incredibly tasty and easy dish to make, as long as you can chop, stir, and show restraint in your salting.
Time: 45 mins (depending how good you are at chopping)
Cost: £
Serves: 1-2
Difficulty: easy
Equipment you will need:
- 1 big saucepan
- chopping board
- knife
- potato masher or blender
Ingredients (Serves 1):
- 200g of cherry tomatoes
- A handful of kalamata olives
- 2 tbsps of capers
- 2 anchovies (at some places you can get anchovy paste and if you’re anything like Gretel and make the dish constantly, then this can be an economical option)
- A healthy glug if olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Crushed chilli flakes to taste
- 10g Parsley
- 60 g of a pasta of your choice (Gretel likes conchiglie)
Method:
- Wash the baby tomatoes and pop them into a sauce pan with olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed chilli flakes and crushed cloves of garlic, and a little bit of water. Set it on low to medium heat for approx. 20 minutes until the tomatoes pop and turn soft.
- Pit the olives (unless you’re fancy and you got the pitted ones) and chop them finely. Add to the saucepan when tomatoes are soft. Give it all a good stir. You might want to add a spoonful of the olive water to the pan. Turn the heat down to low.
- Chop the capers and anchovies very finely (or skip the fish.) Add them to the pan last. Remember that all the ingredients are very salty so don’t over salt the sauce and don’t go overboard with the capers, they’re playing second fiddle here.
- Let everything simmer for a good while, 10-20min.
- Set the pasta to boil in a separate pot. While you’re waiting for your pasta to boil, mash your sauce into a pulp with a potato masher, you might even want to give it a little blitz with a blender but don’t turn it into baby-food-consistency.
- Mix the pasta and the sauce in the pot, add chopped parsley and mix it throughout. Serve hot.
Gretel’s tip: Mix generous amounts of the sauce with orzo pasta for a great cold pasta salad.