Spaghetti alla puttanesca wasn’t named after an actual prostitute, as the etymology of puttana (whore in Italian) might suggest.

According to Annarita Cuomo, a writer for an Italian newspaper, one day in the 1950s a group of desperately hungry customers complained about the shortage of ingredients to Sandro Petti, co-owner of Rancio Fellone, a famous restaurant on the Italian island of Ischia, telling him “Facci una puttanata qualsiasi (Make any kind of garbage)!”

Petti obviously found out there were some olives and some caper buds left in the kitchen…

Laziness Factor: 1

[where 0 is opening a tap with running water at home and 4 is discovering H2O on the Moon]

 

Ingredients for 4-5 servings:

– 500g rigatoni

– 2 fresh tomatoes

– 3 garlic cloves

– 10-12 Kalamata olives or other, pitted

– 10-15 caper buds

– some basil or spearmint leaves

– olive oil, oregano and salt

 

1.

Start the preparation by dicing the tomatoes.

 

2.

Pit the olives, so that you have them ready for the sauce afterwards.

 

3.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the rigatoni.

 

4.

Heat some olive oil over high heat, finely slice the garlic and add it in the saucepan.

 

5.

When the garlic turns golden, add the tomatoes, salt and oregano.

 

6.

When the tomatoes have started melting, add the olives and the capers.

 

7.

When the rigatoni is ready, drain in a colander and immediately add to the sauce.

 

8.

Serve with as many basil or spearmint leaves as you like. Bon appetit!

 

Watch this video version of the recipe:

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Lazy Pasta is the page to explore the world's collection of easy pasta recipes - and then some more elaborate ones. As our life has become faster, you can also try our quick recipes that use favourite pasta types like spaghetti, lasagne, fusilli and rigatoni, that are combined to create simple pasta dishes.

All the Lazy Pasta recipes are presented in photos, which guide through the step-by-step process, and they all end up with their respective pasta recipe video.

Categories of pasta recipes

Lazy Pasta recipes are divided into categories: there are vegetarian pasta recipes, pasta recipes with meat, pasta recipes with seafood and fish, pasta salads, pasta soups and recipes with baked pasta.

The recipe presented above is Rigatoni alla Puttanesca and it belongs to the Vegetarian Pasta Recipes category.

Why pasta?

Pasta is a great ingredient for quick and delicious dishes. Perfect pasta dishes don't always have to be hard to prepare. According to Lazy Pasta there is "an easy pasta recipe for every human on the planet".

Although it's hard to tell which country pasta originates from (whether it's Italy or China), the history of pasta is long and interesting.

Truth be told, pasta has become popular as an ingredient of the Italian cuisine and it forms part of the Mediterranean diet. Pasta dishes can be ordered and devoured in various Italian restaurants all around the world.

The secret of the pasta may lie in its simplicity. It is usually made of white flour or wheat flour, but today we also have the options of whole wheat pasta and, more recently, gluten-free pasta.

Then again, the list of ingredients that can be used in a pasta recipe is endless; The sauce can be anything for a simple tomato sauce to bechamel sauce, white sauce with cream or other dressings. Garlics and onions are great friends of pasta, vegetables and other greens like parsley, dill, spinach, zucchini, peppers, broccoli and mint can be found in various recipes, while cheese is an absolute ticket to success, either grated, sliced or baked on top.

No matter how elaborate a pasta recipe is, the result can be mouth-watering and is certain to please everyone's palate.