In Italian, Pasta alla Putanesca literally means “whore’s pasta.” My English speaking readers may be offended by the word “whore” appearing on my website. My Italian speaking readers may be offended by the word “Putanesca” appearing on my website. My Italian-American dad is probably offended by both. Sorry, dad. Either way, here’s a quick and easy way to make this delicious dish! (I’m going to make it myself tomorrow and add pictures)

Some of these ingredients (capers, olives, anchovies) may not be in your pantry/refrigerator. That’s completely fine. While all of those ingredients add essential flavors to the dish that make it “Pasta alla Putanesca,” the sauce that you would get by leaving all of them out would still be pretty damn good. So don’t shy away from a recipe just because you don’t have all of the ingredients, just go for it with what you have and see what happens!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb spaghetti (I made some homemade pasta for this recipe. Why? Why not?)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves
• 6 anchovies (If someone has a good vegetarian substitute for this, please leave it in the comments!)
• 28-oz can whole tomatoes(The picture has cherry tomatoes. Don’t buy those if you can help it, I dropped the ball on that one)
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 1/2 cup olives
• OPTIONAL: 1 tsp red pepper flakes (or hot sauce)
• 2 tablespoons basil
• A whole bunch of oregano

Instructions:

1. Bring water to boil. Sprinkle some salt in the water. I hope you don’t need this picture, but here it is.
   
2. Put the pasta in, and keep an eye on it while you’re doing everything else.
   
3. Get your olives and garlic. Dice them (cut them up into tiny pieces). Set the olives aside.
   
4. Put the garlic in a sauce pan over medium-low heat (4/10) with the olive oil, anchovies, and pepper flakes. Move that shit around in the pan for about 2 min, trying to mash the anchovies.
   After the anchovies have been mashed:
   
5. Open up your can of tomatoes and dump it in the pan with the juice.
   
6. With your wooden spoon (or whatever utensil you are currently using), try to break open the tomatoes.
   
7. Stir in the olives, capers, basil, and oregano, and bring it to boiling.
   
8. Turn the heat down to low, and leave it for 5-10 min, or until the sauce has thickened slightly.
   
9. Once the sauce has thickened and the pasta is cooked, you now have a delicious whore pasta!
   

-- Download Pasta alla Putanesca, courtesy of Vicky as PDF --