Yesterday we (my colleagues at work and me) went to our favourite italian, Baal, around the corner for lunch. They had Fiocchi alla Puttanesca for "today's lunch menu". Fiocchi is a sort of italian noodle, it has a shape like a rolled circular noodle. Not easy to describe but never mind, I actually want to tell something about "alla Puttanesca". I really like the idea of the name "puttanesca". The name originated in Naples, Spaghetti alla Puttanesca, meaning whore's spaghetti, or spaghetti, the way a prostitute would make it.

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.

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.

Another theory says that the name refers to the hot and spicy flavour of the sauce. Another is that the dish was offered to prospective customers at a low price to entice them into a brothel. The theory, that I always had in my mind since years is, that its name came from the fact that it was a quick, cheap meal that prostitutes could prepare between customers. I've cooked this dish several times and I admit, that the preparation is very quick and easy. All you need is spaghetti (or other italian noodles), garlic, peperoncino (dried hot peppers), anchovy, tomatoes and some black olives. For the sauce you would need fresh parsley and basil leaves as finishing touch.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca is very easy to cook, very tasteful and despite many theories about the name, I have only one word : DELIZIOSO !

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