No piece on puttanesca is complete without a knowing wink to the literal translation of the name: “tart’s spaghetti”, as Delia rather coyly has it, or whore’s pasta, as it is more commonly known. Usually this is just an excuse for a double entendre about the dish’s coarse, fiery flavours. Whatever the truth about its origins and myths, I think the most oft-quoted story, that it was a cheap dish the working girls of Naples could knock up from the cupboard between tricks, is a useful one to bear in mind.
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