A pasta by any other name
Friday, October 30, 2009 | 12:51 PM ET
By Jessica Wong, CBCNews.ca
Faced with some antipasto remains after a dinner this week, my partner suggested we make one of his favourite pasta dishes the next day: spaghetti alla puttanesca. "What does it mean, anyway?" he asked.
I gladly launched into one of the myriad tales purported to tell the back-story of this simple, but flavourful pasta dish apparently devised out of bits and bobs in an Italian kitchen for those busy ladies of the night.
Antipasto leftovers inspired this pared-down spaghetti alla puttanesca. (Jessica Wong/CBC)
If you do a search online, you'll find many takes on the history of this Neopolitan pasta. Some say it originated as a quick meal for brothel staffers to prepare and consume between customers, while others said it was a cheap but fragrant way for the women to lure in new business.
Whatever the case, these stories almost always involve prostitutes (puttanesca) and readily accessible Italian staples like garlic, olives, capers, preserved anchovies, tomatoes and herbs such as parsley.
I laughed the next day when, out of the blue, I received a short midday note stating: "Can't wait for the whore pasta."
The rich and somewhat tangy version we created featured salty olives, sliced roasted red peppers, slivered garlic and ribbons of vinegary preserved artichoke — sautéed lightly in olive oil and tossed with a tangle of al dente spaghetti, minced fresh parsley and some chunks of creamy bocconcini.
Pasta puttanesca got me thinking about tasty dishes or foods that have risqué or embarrassing names. Another that immediately came to mind was Pets-de-Soeurs (Nun's Farts), those French-Canadian cinnamon roll-type pastries.
What's your favourite food with an indelicate or odd name?
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Amber Hildebrandt writes for CBCNews.ca in Toronto. Growing up on a farm in Manitoba, she acquired an insatiable appetite, but it was during a stint in Japan that she developed her discerning tastebuds and "foodie" ways.
Andrea Chiu is an associate producer at CBC Radio Digital. Though she loves to eat, cook and discuss food,
don't ask her to bake. It never turns out well. She tweets as @TOfoodie on Twitter and organizes food and wine events in Toronto called FoodieMeet.
Tara Kimura is the consumer life reporter for CBCNews.ca, covering a wide range of issues that range from rising food costs and the growing organic movement, to new trends in the marketplace.
Andree Lau is a CBC web reporter in Calgary. Her journalism career includes seven years as a CBC-TV reporter. Her own blog called "are you gonna eat that?" chronicles her eating adventures (including sampling snake and camel hoof tendon).
Jessica Wong is a CBCNews.ca writer who loves to eat and cook, as well as discuss, read and watch programming about food, sometimes all at once.
Kevin Yarr, CBCNews.ca's writer in Prince Edward Island, wrote about food and beer for national and regional magazines before joining the CBC. He acquired a desire for new tastes on his first trip to Europe, and an appreciation of eating locally and in season when he finally settled down on P.E.I.
Elizabeth Bridge is a writer with the CBC Digital Archives in Toronto. She first ventured into the kitchen as a child to indulge a sweet tooth by baking cookies and making fudge. A student budget compelled her to be a vegetarian (for a while) and instilled in her an ongoing curiosity about food and cooking.
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Comments
Jack Congson
Mississauga
I suspect the artichokes and bocconcini would have been too rich for the ladies' budgets.
I prefer the pedestrian mix of tomatoes, anchovies, capers, olives and parsley.
Posted November 2, 2009 07:24 PM
Andrew
Toronto
Chip Butties. Only in England would people look at a bun and say, "Let's throw french fries in there and call it something funny."
Posted November 4, 2009 08:06 AM
Sue
Edmonton
In Korea there is a variation of kimchi called "chongak" kimchi, made with a kind of radish instead of cabbage. The radish is long and kind of phallic-shaped and not coincidentally, "chongak" is a Korean term for young, single men.
Posted November 5, 2009 04:13 PM