Back to the normal food! I could not stand the festive fatty meals anymore. It’s been a couple of days I’m avoiding sweets and choosing light meals. Today I wanted to enjoy the flavors of Italian cuisine to the fullest so I made these Spaghetti alla Puttanesca, a dish very popular in the region where I was born, Campania, in Southern Italy. Just tomatoes, capers, black olives, chilly and oregano. And pasta, usually linguine or spaghetti.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca means whore’s style pasta, don’t ask me why, Italians themselves don’t know the reason. A legend tells about brothels where, to attract customers, fast and tasty spaghetti were served to the customers. Today no one considers this name as something vulgar or bad: it’s just another very quick, easy to prepare and full in flavour italian recipe. You can not wrong with it, just follow the recipe for 6 persons I took from a cookbook (see image above, it is written in three langagues: italian, neapolitan, english!) and a few important steps/secrets I suggest you below:

Wash the capers to wipe off the salt;
Do not overcook spaghetti (cook them “al dente”);
While cooking the sauce, be careful that it does not dry out too much. If needed add the salty water where the pasta is cooking;
When spaghetti are ready and well drained (do you have a colander, right?), toss them in the pan to give pasta a chance to absorb the sauce.
Serve warm and enjoy it!