The Story of Puttanesca

Several months ago one of my guest bloggers had a recipe for Spaghetti alla puttanesca. In the comments for the week following the post went up was some discussion about the name (“whore’s pasta”) that I found interesting. I had already made this dish but held it from posting to put some time in between the posts.

During the time it was being held, I decided to do a little research as I would have guessed that the name had been around a long time. I expected the history would have been that there was a common dish made in the slums of some Italian city that originated from inexpensive ingredients. The well-to-do in the city thumbed their noses at the dish and the people who regularly ate it. To add further derision, the “swells” called the dish “whore’s pasta”. Over time, the dish became common enough that the insult lost its edge.

In reality, the dish was likely created in the 1950’s or 60’s in a restaurant. I like my story better.

A hearty dish with lots of flavor.

A little sausage, pepper, onion and anchovy paste make this dish.

All of the solid components.

With the tomatoes.

And the pasta.

Life is much better with melted cheese on top!

Such a delicious taste.

Italian Sausage Puttanesca

Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces uncooked penne pasta

• 8 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage

• 1 cup chopped onion

• 1 cup chopped green bell pepper

• 3 garlic cloves, minced

• Cooking spray

• 2 (14.5-ounce) cans no salt-added whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped

• 1/2 cup halved pitted kalamata olives

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 1 tablespoon capers, drained

• 1 teaspoon anchovy paste

• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well.

Remove casings from sausage. Place sausage, onion, pepper, and garlic in a Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat; sauté 8 minutes, stirring to crumble.

Add tomatoes, olives, tomato paste, capers, and anchovy paste to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add pasta, tossing well to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts and begins to brown.

Nutritional Info:

482 calories 30 % caloriesfromfat 16 g fat 4.6 g satfat 6.9 g monofat 2.6 g polyfat 24.7 g protein 63.3 g carbohydrate 6.1 g fiber 42 mg cholesterol 4.7 mg iron 983 mg sodium 231 mg calcium

Source:http://m.myrecipes.com/details/searchR.rbml?id=10000000592281.xml&bcat=search&cat=Search%20Result&fl=recipe/italian-sausage-puttanesca-10000000592281/