Careful what kind of pasta you order, because you might just be inadvertently saying something dirty.

Penne

Penne is a popular and extremely common variety of Italian pasta noodle. The bite-size pieces are shaped like little cylindrical tubes. Indeed, the Italian word penne comes from the Latin word penna, which means “quill.” That makes sense, as penne pieces do resemble tiny pens or pencils. But penne is also an amusing—and almost vulgar—play on words. The Italian language is very precise, and every single letter in a word must be pronounced to convey the intended meaning. For example, penne has two Ns—fully pronounce both of them, holding on the N for a little longer than necessary, and you’ll express to, say, a waiter in an Italian restaurant that you wish to order penne. Shorten that N too much, however, and you’ve said the word pene, and you’ve ordered something quite different. Pene is the Italian word for a certain part of the male anatomy.

Pasta Alla Puttanesca

This simple Italian pasta dish is an easy to prepare dinner, made primarily with canned and prepackaged ingredients, contrary to the many slow-cooked and intricately prepared meals characteristic of traditional Italian cooking. The sauce goes on top of spaghetti, and it’s most commonly made with canned tomatoes, canned olives, canned capers, canned anchovies, and dried chili flakes. The lack of fresh ingredients, however, is wryly referred to in the dish’s name—pasta alla puttanesca translates to “w****’s pasta.” Why is this a supper for women or questionable moral fortitude? Legend has it that it was a meal popular with women who were too busy sleeping off the previous night’s work to go to the market in the morning to buy fresh ingredients, and so had to rely on canned items.