Pasta & noodles · Italy

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Name: Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6–8
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 600 grams (21 ounces) uncooked spaghetti; 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 115 grams (4 ounces) unsalted anchovy fillets, crushed into a paste (omit anchovies for Neapolitan version); 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped; 200 grams (7 ounces) black olives, pitted and chopped; 2 tablespoons salted capers, washed well and coarsely chopped; 1–3 small dried chile peppers, chopped (optional); 900 grams (roughly 2 pounds) plum tomatoes, peeled and puréed; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; Salt to taste

Spaghetti alla puttanesca (Italian: "whore's spaghetti") is a spicy, tangy and somewhat salty Italian pasta dish. According to Annarita Cuomo, writer for Il Golfo, a newspaper serving the Italian islands of Ischia and Procida, sugo alla puttanesca was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of Rancio Fellone, a famous Ischian restaurant and nightspot. Apparently, when near closing one evening, Petti found a group of hungry friends sitting at one of his tables. Petti was low on ingredients and told them he didn't have enough to make them a meal. They complained that it was late and they were hungry. "Facci una puttanata qualsiasi" ("make any kind of garbage"), they insisted. Petti had nothing more than four tomatoes, two olives and some capers; the basic ingredients for the sugo. "So I used them to make the sauce for the spaghetti," Petti told Cuomo. Later, Petti included the dish on his menu as spaghetti alla puttanesca. Ingredients vary a bit among chefs and cooks according to individual tastes. However, this version (from Lazio) always includes anchovies, while a Neapolitan

Published October 16, 2026

EST. TOTAL TIME30 min

DIFFICULTYEasy

SERVES6–8

Time and difficulty are editorial estimates; allow extra time for your equipment and experience.

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What you’ll need

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Let’s make it

Step 1

Put the olive oil, garlic, and anchovy paste in a skillet over medium heat.

Step 2

Before the garlic browns, add the olives, capers, tomato sauce, and chile peppers.

Step 3

Add 2–3 pinches of salt, mixing over high heat. Then lower the heat and allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Step 4

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in salted water (at least 4 quarts of water per pound of spaghetti being cooked). Strain it when it's al dente.

Step 5

Place pasta in a large serving bowl, and coat it with sauce. Then, sprinkle it with chopped parsley.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

What you’ll need

Let’s make it

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