Prostitutes know their pasta.

Every Friday at work, we have lunch catered for us. Every Thursday, we get an email from the office manager telling us what we can expect to ingest the following day. 

This past week's menu update read: Friday's lunch menu is lasagna, penne with puttanesca sauce, caesar salad, rolls and cannolis for dessert. Having never heard of it before, I figured that this puttanesca sauce must be something exotic and wonderful. Being the curious cat that I am, I decided to look it up. 

The first response that came up from our friend Wikipedia tells me Spaghetti a la Puttanesca  is also known as Whore's Spaghetti...intriguing. Upon further examination, our other friend Merriam-Webster confirms this pasta's whoredom. 

Etymology: Italian, short for alla puttanesca, literally, in the style of a prostitute: served with or being a pungent tomato sauce typically containing olives, garlic, capers, hot peppers and sometimes anchovies.

I'm now slightly concerned. So many questions! Is "pungent" a good thing? Are whores good cooks? ANCHOVIES!?! 

My coworker and I decided that the Italian Mafia must have actually been in charge of naming pasta dishes. Lasagna actually means drug dealer. And cannolis is just a fancy word for bootleggers. You might think twice now next time you order your Linguini Alfredo, or you could wind up mezza morta.

 

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