Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Being or served with a pungent sauce of tomatoes, olives, garlic, anchovies, capers, and hot chili pepper.
  • noun Puttanesca sauce.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A cooking sauce made from tomato flavoured with garlic, anchovies, capers and olives.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Italian alla puttanesca, in puttanesca style, from puttanesca, feminine of puttanesco, like a prostitute, filthy, from Old Italian, from puttana, female prostitute, from Old French putain, from pute, feminine of put, foul, stinking, from Latin pūtidus, from pūtēre, to be rotten, stink; see pū̆- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian puttanesca ("like a prostitute"), from puttana ("prostitute").

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Examples

  • And yes, I have used fish sauce in puttanesca when I had no anchovies around.

    Tigers & Strawberries » Puttanesca: Fast Food for Fast Women 2005

  • The name gives puttanesca a residual taste of sex—this, it says, is a sauce for working women.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • The name gives puttanesca a residual taste of sex—this, it says, is a sauce for working women.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • It's loosely based on Ann Curry's pasta puttanesca.

    Jordana Zizmor: An Easy Meatless Monday Valentine's Day Dinner Jordana Zizmor 2011

  • Legend has it puttanesca was invented by working girls who needed a sauce they could whip up and wolf down between clients.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • On that first visit I bought tomatoes and oily black olives imported from Turkey, and that night, instead of eating downstairs in the restaurant, Mohamad and I dined on pasta puttanesca.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • Legend has it puttanesca was invented by working girls who needed a sauce they could whip up and wolf down between clients.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • Lidia theorizes that pasta alla puttanesca soared to popularity here in the 1970s because authentic Italian ingredients such as cured olives and cured capers were just becoming available, so the dish delivered what she calls a "wallop of flavor" that keeps people making it right up to today.

    Rozanne Gold: Lidia's Italy in America Rozanne Gold 2011

  • Tasting Notes: Big, fleshy fillets from Portugal's southern waters are packed in a thick purée made from local tomatoes and extra-virgin olive oil—a combination that yields a flavor reminiscent of puttanesca.

    Tin Tin! Katherine Cancila 2011

  • On that first visit I bought tomatoes and oily black olives imported from Turkey, and that night, instead of eating downstairs in the restaurant, Mohamad and I dined on pasta puttanesca.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

Comments

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  • Literally, whore's pasta. From the Italian "puttana," or "prostitute." There are several accounts of why it came to be called this.

    At the risk of ruining my reputation, I must confess that I like to make puttanesca.

    July 10, 2007

  • And at the risk of ruining mine, I must confess that I love eating it!

    The puttanesca, I mean.

    July 10, 2007

  • C'mon over and we'll all have pasta!

    July 10, 2007