Aug 29, 2003   | COMMENTS     

WHEN YOU THINK typical Italian-American dishes, you think meatballs and spaghetti (after you’ve thought of, say, Nick Scotti or Madonna ). I don’t know if there is such as thing as a “typical” Italian dish since, like many countries, Italy is a collection of regional cuisines.

But in this country, meatballs and spaghetti has become a cliché for Italian. Hmm, I’ll bet it’s popularity here is because it’s basically ground beef balls (read: hamburgers) on long wheat strands (read: buns) with a red sauce (read: ketchup).

But when it comes to sexy names for Italian dishes, pasta puttanesca is at the top of the list. From the slang word puttana, meaning “whore,” pasta puttanesca is “whore’s pasta.”

It’s popular in Southern Italy, especially Naples. I don’t know why. Maybe, as Dean Martin once sung, “in old Napoli, that’s amore.”

I doubt you’ll find the translated version on any restaurant menus. Crude talk may be allowed among the patrons, but not on the menus.

Wouldn’t it be fun to order it in translation sometime: “Miss Wait-thing, I’ll have some of that slut’s spaghetti.” Don’t laugh; in Britain, it’s apparently sometimes called “tart’s spaghetti.”

True to its name, pasta puttanesca is not a subtle dish, and surprisingly it’s meatless and made as it is with tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, olives, and capers. Maybe it’s too racy for some tastes, since it’s not served at every Italian restaurant.

But it’s easy enough to fix at home. Its strong flavors mean any palette can get a kick from it, no matter how pooped from a night of clubbing.

THERE ARE A NUMBER of explanations circulating for the origin of its name.

In one, prostitutes would put pots of the sauce on the windows to attract customers. In another, they needed a quick dish they could whip up between customers.

Oh please, make a salad. The last thing a giovanni needs is a call girl with garlic-anchovy breath.

None of this explains why this bunch of ingredients would be associated with prostitutes. Perhaps the ingredients are so commonplace in certain parts of Italy that they are not considered worthy of special regard. It’s interesting that it’s just the opposite here, where good olives and capers are such gourmet delights.

We could just as well have called it queen’s pasta, given the cost of the ingredients here. But while its ingredients are more expensive than a jar of spaghetti sauce, it’s as easy to throw together as lesbians around a massage table.

Pasta puttanesca is a popular dish in Southern Italy, especially Naples.

You can almost do it while you’re boiling the pasta and uncorking the Chianti. If you’re clever, you can have a dinner for all of your friends and have them each bring some of the ingredients. Advertise it as a “whore’s pasta dinner” and they’ll probably all show up.

There are a lot of varied recipes for pasta puttanesca out there online, but here are the basics. (Exact proportions are not critical):

• Take 1 and 1/2- 2 pounds of good ripe tomatoes, preferably plum tomatoes. (Use canned if you must.) Dip in boiling water, peel, seed, and chop coarsely. You should have at least 4 cups of tomato pulp.
• Lightly sauté 3-4 finely chopped large cloves of garlic in olive oil, and 1-2 oz. of anchovies smashed up (you can leave this out if you really must).
• After a minute, add the chopped tomatoes, 1-2 tablespoons of capers, and about 1 cup of coarsely chopped pitted black olives.
• Season with pepper flakes or hot sauce, a tablespoon of dried oregano, and/or 1-2 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley. Salt is not needed.
• Simmer for 15-20 minutes and it’s done.
• Tossed with a pound of pasta, this dish will serve up to six people.
• Add a big salad, and a tiramisu for dessert. Pass around a chunk of good Parmesan with a grater, and a cruet of extra virgin olive oil. Then, let the stories of the night begin.