Pasta alla Puttanesca
I hope you don’t consider it uncouth for me to talk about whores at such an early hour, especially on a Monday, but it’s impossible to write about Pasta Puttanesca without sounding like a cast member of The Sopranos. (If that’s the case, I should pronounce the word: “whoo-ore.”) You see, Pasta alla Puttanesca translates in Italian to: “Pasta the way a whore would make it.” The reasons are often disputed: some say it’s because this is the pasta whores would make in Italy to lure in potential customers, others say it’s because the strong smell–anchovies, garlic–made the pasta itself “smell like a whore.” Either way, this is a delicious pasta and extremely easy to make: in fact, last night, it was Easter and all the grocery stores were closed. So I ran to the corner bodega and bought one box of ziti, one can of tomato puree, and used the garlic and anchovies and capers I had on hand to whip up a potful and it was a big hit: the Julia Roberts of whore pastas.
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