Pasta all'Arrabbiata
Garlic fried gold in olive oil, dried chillies blooming until the whole kitchen stings, and tomatoes cooked down to a sauce that bites back. This is the angry one, and it is supposed to hurt.
- Total
- 35 min
- Heat
- 4/5
- Serves
- 4
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Flavour profile
- Garlicky
- Rich
- Sour
- Spicy
The real deal
- Region
- Lazio, Rome — the trattoria classic born in the 1950s, though the name goes back further.
- Technique
- Garlic and peperoncino bloomed in olive oil so the capsaicin infuses the fat before the tomatoes go in; the sauce is finished in the pan with the pasta and its starchy water.
- We kept
- Only garlic, peperoncino, good tomatoes and olive oil. No onion, no herbs, no cream, no grated cheese stirred through — just parmesan or pecorino at the table if you want it.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 400 g
Sauce
- 5 tbsp
- 6 cloves · thinly sliced
- 2 tsp · crushed, seeds and all
- 800 g · San Marzano, crushed by hand
- 1 pinch
- 1 pinch · only if the tomatoes are sharp
water
- 20 g
finish
- 2 tbsp · optional · roughly chopped
- 40 g · optional · finely grated, at the table
Method
Fill a big pot generously with water, salt it hard and set it over high heat. It should taste like the sea.
Tip: An undersalted pot is the one thing you can't fix later.
Slice thinly. Do not crush or chop it: thin slices fry evenly and turn sweet-golden instead of bitter.
Crush roughly in a mortar, or snip them with scissors. Leave the seeds where they fall: that's where the real heat lives.
Tip the into a bowl and crush them with your hands, leaving some texture. Reserve the juice in the tin.
Put a wide pan or the wok over medium heat and add 5 tbsp . Add the garlic slices and the chilli together. Let them sizzle gently until the garlic turns pale gold at the edges and the oil glows deep red, about 1 min 30 sec.
Tip: If the garlic browns, start again: burnt garlic poisons the whole sauce with bitterness.
Tip in the crushed tomatoes with their juice. Season with a good pinch of . Simmer over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until the sauce darkens, thickens and the oil starts to separate at the edges, about 15 min.
Tip: If the tomatoes taste sharp, add a pinch of to round them out — no more, this sauce is meant to be tart.
Drop the into the boiling water. Stir once. Cook until it bends but still snaps at the core, one minute short of the pack time.
Tip: Save a mug of the cooking water before you drain — it's the only thing that will marry the pasta to the sauce.
Drain the pasta, keeping a mug of the cooking water, and tip it straight into the sauce. Toss hard over medium heat, adding splashes of the water until the sauce turns glossy, orange-red and clings to every strand, about 1 min.
Tip: Off the heat before you toss the last splash in: the sauce should look creamy, never watery.
Kill the heat. Scatter over the if you're using it, and take the to the table for anyone who wants it. Eat immediately — arrabbiata waits for no one.
Make it a meal
What hits hardest next to it.
- StarterFreshLightSour
A crisp, sharp salad resets the palate between hits of chilli and keeps the meal from feeling heavy.
Try: Shaved fennel with lemon, olive oil and flaky salt
Nothing on the site fits yet. Ask the Lab to cook one up →
- BreadStarchyRich
Bread does what bread does best: mops the last of the angry sauce off the plate.
Try: Thick slices of grilled sourdough rubbed with raw garlic
Nothing on the site fits yet. Ask the Lab to cook one up →