[1][2] Because puttana means roughly 'whore' or 'prostitute' and puttanesca is an adjective derived from that word, the dish may have been invented in one of many bordellos in the Naples working-class neighbourhood of Quartieri Spagnoli as a quick meal taken between servicing clients.

"[6] Various recipes in Italian cookbooks dating back to the 19th century describe pasta sauces very similar to a modern puttanesca under different names.

One of the earliest dates from 1844, when Ippolito Cavalcanti, in his Cucina teorico-pratica, included a recipe from popular Neapolitan cuisine, calling it vermicelli all'oglio con olive capperi ed alici salse.

[7] After some sporadic appearances in other Neapolitan cookbooks, in 1931 the Touring Club Italiano's Guida gastronomica d'Italia lists it among the gastronomic specialties of Campania, calling it maccheroni alla marinara,[8] although the proposed recipe is close to that of a modern puttanesca sauce.

[10] Nonetheless, the 1971 edition of the Il cucchiaio d'argento (The Silver Spoon), one of Italy's most prominent cookbooks, has no recipe with the name puttanesca, but two recipes that are similar: the Neapolitan spaghetti alla partenopea is made with anchovies and generous quantities of oregano, while spaghetti alla siciliana is distinguished by the addition of green peppers; still again, there is a Sicilian style popular around Palermo that includes olives, anchovies, and raisins.

[12] In a 2005 article from Il Golfo—a daily newspaper serving the Italian islands of Ischia and Procida—Annarita Cuomo asserted that sugo alla puttanesca was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of 'O Rangio Fellone, a famous Ischian restaurant and nightspot.