Pizza #4: A pizza named after what?????

 Pizza #3: Pizza alla puttanesca

 

Meaning “in the style of the whore”, this sauce is traditionally made from tomatoes, black olives, capers, anchovies, onions, garlic, and herbs (oregano, parsley and sometimes basil).   Cooked quickly, this fragrant and spicy dish is typical of southern Italian cooking. 

There are quite a few theories out there as to how this sauce got it’s name. The most wildly accepted (as far as I can tell) is that, since puttana in Italian means whore, it was a quick and easy pasta sauce for the Puttanas to make in between customers. Hence the name Puttanesca sauce.  Another theory is that a restaurant owner has unexpected guests one night and threw together this sauce from what he had on had.  Nice idea, but not nearly as racy as the idea of it coming out of a red light district. 

Traditionally served with spaghetti, recipes vary from place to place. You can count on salty, briny, spicy, savory, and sweet flavors in each bite of such a sauce though.

Having most of the ingredients necessary to make this sauce, and this being pizza month, it was a logical choice. 

It wasn’t my favorite pizza so far, but has serious potential.  My olives weren’t strong enough, I didn’t have enough capers, and my anchovy paste was way too strong.  But the taste of the summer roma tomatoes came through again, making each bite worth it. 

I can’t stress how delicious this sauce is.  Modify the ingredients based on personal preference, aversion/love of anchovies or desired heat level, but I highly suggest adding it to next weeks dinner rotation.  

And if pasta isn’t your thing, I’d love to hear how it worked for you on a pizza.