My version of pasta alla puttanesca has had a slight name change. And yes, I realise that it’s not really necessary to translate the title, as this store cupboard standby of pasta with anchovies, olives, capers, garlic, chilli flakes and tinned tomatoes is widely enough known, but humour me: Slattern’s Spaghetti it now is! Although you will often see its Italian name explained as meaning “whore’s pasta” in English, the general consensus seems to be, however, that this is the sort of dish cooked by slatterns who don’t go to market to get their ingredients fresh, but are happy to use stuff out of cans and jars. Whatever you call it, it is as flavoursome to eat as it is easy to cook. Do add more fire, in the form of chilli flakes if you wish, though I should warn that even if the first mouthful doesn't seem that hot, the fieriness builds up as you eat. And you can fiddle around with quantities as pleases you generally; vegetarians and vegans, for example, can just leave out the anchovies and maybe bump up the olives and capers a bit. I recently had a twitter conversation with one Jim Hewitt (@jimbarleycorn) about the new name for this, and I gratefully end with this fabulous message of his: "On those days when my mum couldn't be bothered to brush her hair and cooked dinner using whatever was in the cupboard she would say: "Hush. I'm slatterning!" This is perfect for a slatterning day." For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
