Sauces · Italian cuisine
Puttanesca
Naples’ sauce of tomatoes, olives and capers – with anchovies in the Lazio variant from Gaeta.
At a glance
- Origin
- Naples and Campania; the name documented from 1961.
- Production
- Garlic, olives and capers in oil, tomatoes simmered briefly.
- Pairs with
- Spaghetti, linguine or vermicelli.
- Use
- The Lazio variant adds anchovies.
Puttanesca is a sauce of tomatoes, black olives (typically from Gaeta), capers, garlic and olive oil, with parsley, oregano or chilli. In Naples it is called “aulive e chiapparielle”, olives and capers. The Neapolitan version is usually made without anchovies, which are associated with the Lazio variant from Gaeta; recipes vary, though, and a similar dish in an 1844 Neapolitan cookbook already includes anchovies.
The method is quick: garlic is softened in oil, olives and capers go in, with melted anchovies if used, then the tomatoes, and the sauce simmers briefly. It is served with spaghetti or linguine.
The name is documented fairly late: “spaghetti alla puttanesca” appears in a 1961 novel. Stories of its invention on Ischia in the 1950s or in the brothels of Naples’ Spanish Quarters remain unconfirmed legends.