Spaghetti with Streetwalker’s Sauce

This sauce, said to be from the island of Ischia (off the coast of Naples), has become popular not only in Naples but in all of Italy and even abroad. The name puttanesca, usually translated somewhat less delicately than “streetwalker,” comes from the fact that the ladies of the night, after whom this sauce is named, had little time to shop and had to rely on ingredients such as olives and anchovies that would keep without spoiling. Or so the story goes.