# Pasta Putanesca- You are what you eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935 "2004-04-14T07:02:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/1 "2004-04-14T07:02:06Z")
Am I translating this correctly? **Pasta of or relating to whores?** How did this olives and capers dish come to be so named? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/2 "2004-04-14T07:07:01Z")
I may be wrong, and I’m too tired to look it up, but it appears to me you may be mixing Italian and Spanish here. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/3 "2004-04-14T07:11:05Z")
Okay, okay…so curiosity got to me and you’re right. It’s “Harlot’s Pasta.” Read all about it: [http://www.thegutsygourmet.net/pastas-putanesca.html](http://www.thegutsygourmet.net/pastas-putanesca.html) ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/4 "2004-04-14T07:11:42Z")
Yes, you are translating it correctly, though the proper (or at least most often used) spelling contains 2 t’s. Anyway, a couple of interpretations of how the name came about: - [Epicurious Dictionary](http://eat.epicurious.com/dictionary/food/index.ssf?TERM=puttanesca&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=submit) - “[http://www.cucinait.com/cucinait/WorldEdition/Glossary/Glossary\_6540.htm](http://www.cucinait.com/cucinait/WorldEdition/Glossary/Glossary_6540.htm)”]La Cucina Italiana Online ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/5 "2004-04-14T07:13:16Z")
Crap. See, this is why we need the edit feature (and I previewed, too): Second link: [La Cucina Italiana Online](http://www.cucinait.com/cucinait/WorldEdition/Glossary/Glossary_6540.htm) ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/6 "2004-04-14T10:17:05Z")
hmm…anchovies, olives and capers… could it be that it er, tastes like a whore? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/7 "2004-04-14T10:28:37Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > tastes like a whore? Yummy! **irishgirl** , introduce me to the whores you’ve been with. I want in! ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/8 "2004-04-14T12:26:18Z")
'round here, Putanesca is generally referred to as “ho sauce.” And no, it doesn’t taste like a whore, it tastes dreamy! ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/9 "2004-04-14T13:48:31Z")
So, then does shepherd’s pie taste like a shepherd? ---
**Author:** ![helieo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@helieo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/helieo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/10 "2004-04-14T14:16:32Z")
I was told that it got its name because it is quite a quick and easy dish to make in between clients! ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/11 "2004-04-14T16:10:25Z")
> [@helieo](#): > > I was told that it got its name because it is quite a quick and easy dish to make in between clients! That’s what I’ve always heard too. [Cite.](http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/Ciro_and_Sals_Cookbook/082890734X/) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/12 "2004-04-14T23:06:54Z")
I always thought of it as “pasta of the courtesan”! My recipe calls for hot peppers, making it a spicy, piquant, flavorful meal. It can lead to a burning sensation later on, though. Cuisine imitating life, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/13 "2004-04-14T23:35:18Z")
If you are what you eat, then I’m fast, cheap, and easy. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/14 "2004-04-15T02:13:56Z")
One of my Moosewood cookbooks says that the name came from the spicy dish putting a little bounce in the step of the “working girls” who ate it. Ever see the movie “Made”? There’s a hilarious little scene where a character is making pasta puttanesca for a young girl (5 yrs old). He’s just making small talk and says “Do you know what pasta puttanesca is? It’s -” (look on as his face as he realizes what he was about to say) “-um, it’s, um…bad girl’s pasta.” ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/15 "2004-04-15T02:47:36Z")
The explanation I’ve heard is that the sauce is something whores would whip up out of the things they had in their kitchen - the implication being that a whore isn’t likely to spend a lot of time at the market picking out fresh food but any Italian woman would have at least these things. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pasta-putanesca-you-are-what-you-eat/239935/16 "2004-04-15T03:23:43Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > It can lead to a burning sensation later on, though. Cuisine imitating life, I guess. But only if it involves a syringe, eh, Doc? 😃