Sugo all’arrabbiata

Pasta all’arrabbiata is probably one of the simplest dishes in our cuisine, it’s fast and made with a single ingredient: raw tomatoes cooked in olive oil, with a little garlic to give more taste, and some chili pepper.

The most important part here is the choice of tomatoes.

A pelati can

I’d suggest normal pelati or even better, the san marzano ones, especially if you like the acidity of the tomato. Otherwise, piccadilly tomatoes are sweeter and wouldn’t require corrections. Remember you can always add a little sugar to remove acidity in the sauce. In italy we have plain raw tomatoes peeled that comes in a can, and i use them a lot, since they don’t require a lot of efforts to remove the peel. Just buy them plain. No other ingredients inside just peeled.

Note: Best pasta to use is pennette but i had to use maccheroncini because I realized in the middle of the recipe i was without them. Bachelors…

As always, put the water for the pasta to boil.

Take the peeled tomatoes out from the can (1), remove all the seeds and eventually the core if it’s too hard. Chop them into pieces and put them in a little bowl (2). Don’t throw all the juce and seeds but instead filter them using a fine strainer and a spoon (3) in the small bowl. The juice will help the tomato to cook and give taste.(4)

1. Take the pelati

2. Chop them, without throwing the juice

3. Put the tomato waste in a strain an get all the juice off.

4. You have tomatoes with its juice.

Take a slice of garlic, don’t remove the peel, just break it by putting the flat part of the blade of a knife over it and pressing.

5. Whack the garlic. This allows the taste to spread to the oil.

Put some olive oil in a frying pan, and then the garlic (6). Leave it until it strarts frying for 2 minutes, then put the tomatoes (since the tomatoes are watery, i suggest to lower the heater down and wait 1 minute, to avoid spurts). Add a little salt and the chili, then cover and leave cooking for 10 minutes at low heat (7). Stir from time to time.

6. Leave the garlic to fry in the oil for 2 minutes

7. Then add tomatoes, chili peppers and cover it.

After 10 minutes, squash the tomato pieces with a fork until they become as much creamy as you want. I personally like to have pieces of tomatoes in the pasta, so i just squash some of them to make the sauce a little creamy (8).

8. Squash the tomato pieces as you like

Meanwhile pasta should be cooking. If the tomato sauce becomes too dry, add some water from the pasta (which cointains gluten and makes it creamy) with the foam to it and stir. Keep closed (9).

9. This is more or less the consistence i like.

Once pasta is cooked, higher the temperature of the frying pan, remove the garlic and put the pasta in it (don’t drain it too much) and fry it with the sugo for 1-2 minutes at very high temperature. This will allow the pasta and the sauce to blend together. If it’s too dry, add some water from pasta and let it evaporate.

10. Add pasta to the frying pan

11. Leave it cooking for 1-2 minutes at high eat, if it’s too dry, add some water from pasta.

Serve hot, with a bowl of grated grana or pecorino cheese to put on the top, if you like.

 You can use tofu instead of pecorino cheese and obtain the very same saltiness.

Spread your favorite cheese on the top and enjoy!

Your sugo all’arrabbiata is ready. How was it? Did you like it? Anyone interested in the recipe for making tomato sauce at home from scratch? Let me know!

Bear.