Puttanesca

[Laurence Horn]

A couple of older puttanescas:  the Times Living Section had two
discussions in 1980, one from a restaurant review by Mimi Sheraton
(8/8/80) that provides no details but presupposes readers'
familiarity with the dish and one from a Craig Claiborne column
(9/24/80) that leads readers through the creation of a version of it.
Note the reference to "the traditional decades-old concept":
===============
How about spaghetti alla puttanesca, that traditional dish whose name
translates somewhat quaintly into spaghetti whore's style.

  You can use the identical marinara sauce but to it you add basil,
oregano, dried hot red pepper, capers, black olives and anchovies.
The sauce will be more substantial and certainly ''different.'' I
would digress briefly and state that I did not ''invent'' spaghetti
alla puttanesca; I used the traditional decades-old concept and
concocted my own version of it.
==============
larry


At 2:26 PM -0400 4/18/02, Baker, John wrote:
>         Westlaw's earliest puttanesca quote is from a review of
>Geranio in Alexandria, Va., on July 5, 1984:
>
>         >>For appetizers, split an order of pasta -- especially
>penne alla puttanesca, our favorite dish -- simple, small
>tubes tossed in a light, intense tomato sauce with shreds of
>tuna, black olives and capers. So good it's seductive. <<
>
>
>         See also this quote from the March 14, 1985 Chicago Tribune:
>
>         >>Italian cooking teacher Maria Battaglia of Evanston explained
>the origin of spaghetti alla puttanesca (prostitute style), a dish
>of diverse ingredients, which she demonstrated: "It is said, when
>the ladies of the evening got home, they were very tired and cooked
>with whatever they had in their cupboards."<<
>
>
>John Baker
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bapopik at aol.com [mailto:Bapopik at aol.com]
>Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 12:27 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Puttanesca; Pasta (1840); Dell's not for dunking
>
>
>PUTTANESCA
>
>    Emeril has a "Puttanesca" sauce.  I was surprised, but I found
>that EVERYONE has a "Puttanesca" sauce.
>    "Puttanesca" is not in Merriam-Webster, not in OED, and not in
>John Mariani's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD AND DRINK.  The NYPL
>has a food bibliography on the shelf (1970s & 1980s), and the sauce
>isn't there, either.  There are a few handy Italian reference books,
>but not one has it.
>    I have the "bad" Lexis/Nexis and no access to the DOw Jones
>database right now.  The NYPL has EBSCO.  There were ten hits, with
>the earliet in OPERA NEWS, May 1985, pages 11-14+, "Festa Italiana!"
>GLAMOUR magazine, September 1985, pg. 390, also have "Puttanesca."
>A NYC restaurant called Puttanesca opened and was reviewed in NEW
>YORK magazine, May 20, 1996, pg. 144+.  The restaurant was also
>reviewed in the NEW YORK TIMES, July 5, 1996, pg. C21.