🍅 Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Spaghetti alla puttanesca is a southern Italian pasta dish with a quick tomato sauce made with black olives, capers, garlic, olive oil and chilli. It is bold, salty and aromatic, and it is made almost entirely from pantry ingredients.

The dish is associated with Naples and Campania, though its origin is debated: some accounts place it on the island of Ischia in the mid-twentieth century, and recipes under this name appear in print only from that period on. The name comes from the Italian word puttana, a prostitute; the many anecdotes that explain it are colourful but unproven.

The Neapolitan version uses ripe or tinned tomatoes, black olives such as Gaeta olives, salted or brined capers, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, chilli and parsley or oregano. In Lazio and elsewhere anchovies are often melted into the oil at the start for extra depth; whether they belong is a favourite argument. Cheese is not usually added.

Garlic and chilli, plus the anchovies if used, are warmed in olive oil, then the tomatoes go in and simmer for 10–15 minutes; olives and rinsed capers are added towards the end so they keep their character. Because olives, capers and anchovies are salty, the sauce needs little or no extra salt, and the pasta water should be only lightly salted.

Spaghetti are the classic choice; linguine and vermicelli also work, and penne are common outside Italy.