Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Spaghetti alla puttanesca (Italian: "whore's spaghetti") is a spicy, tangy and somewhat salty Italian pasta dish. According to Annarita Cuomo, writer for Il Golfo, a newspaper serving the Italian islands of Ischia and Procida, sugo alla puttanesca was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of Rancio Fellone, a famous Ischian restaurant and nightspot. Apparently, when near closing one evening, Petti found a…
Ingredients
- 600 grams (21 ounces) uncooked spaghetti
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 115 grams (4 ounces) unsalted anchovy fillets, crushed into a paste (omit anchovies for Neapolitan version)
- 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 200 grams (7 ounces) black olives, pitted and chopped
- 2 tablespoons salted capers, washed well and coarsely chopped
- 1–3 small dried chile peppers, chopped (optional)
- 900 grams (roughly 2 pounds) plum tomatoes, peeled and puréed
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- Salt to taste
Steps
- Put olive oil, garlic and anchovy paste in skillet over medium heat.
- Before garlic browns, add olives, capers, tomato sauce and chile peppers.
- Add 2–3 pinches salt. Mix over high heat. Lower heat. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in salted water (at least 4 quarts water per pound spaghetti). Strain when al dente.
- Place pasta in large serving bowl. Coat with sauce. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.
- Mix. Serve hot.
Notes from the original
- Italians customarily do not top this dish with grated cheese.
- This recipe calls for chile peppers. Choosing the right quantity and type of pepper depends on your personal taste and a bit of trial and error. For this dish, most chefs use peppers in the moderate range of the Scoville scale. Use one or one and a half small peppers the first time you make this recipe. Use one and a half or two small peppers if your first attempt at making sugo leaves you craving more pepper heat. Keep increasing the number of peppers until you get it right. Most chefs stop at three.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Spaghetti alla Puttanesca” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-03-11, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Spaghettiniphoto.jpg by nishidaryuichi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.





