Arrabbiata Sauce

First published September 2015


Arrabbiata means "angry" in Italian; thus, this sauce is intended to be "spicy." It is especially good with fresh ripe tomatoes and fresh chilies, like serrano peppers. If you have an herb garden, use basil from the garden, or even store bought fresh basil, as so many produce shops and supermarkets now have fresh herbs available. Of course, if you do not have access to fresh produce, perhaps because of the season, use canned tomatoes, dried chilies, and dried basil. Italians tend to use fresh ingredients, but if you use canned and dried ingredients, you will not wake up to find a horse head in your bed. Ahh .... not that I can guarantee that.

Ingredients 

(for 1 pound of penne or rigatoni pasta)
about 3/4 pound of fresh Roma tomatoes, seeded (if using canned tomatoes, 1  28 oz. can of drained diced tomatoes, or drained whole tomatoes broken up; in either case, save about 1/4 cup of tomato juice)
1/4 cup of tomato juice, if using fresh tomatoes
2 serrano chili peppers, seeded and diced (or 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of dried red chili pepper flakes, depending upon the level of heat you want)
1   6 oz. can tomato paste
2 cloves of garlic, chopped/minced
4 or 5 basil leaves, chopped (or about 1 teaspoon dried)
1/4 cup olive oil
Romano cheese
You should not need to add salt to the recipe, because of the Romano cheese and the pasta should be cooked in salted water.

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the brand you use. In a skillet add the olive oil and the chopped garlic, saute just about a minute (don't let the garlic burn, as it can have a nasty taste). Add the tomatoes and chilies and cook until they soften. Stir in the tomato paste and juice from the tomatoes (you can actually mix the juice and tomato paste together and then pour it in), then add the basil leaves. Drain the pasta and mix it into the sauce, serve with grated or shaved Romano cheese, preferably Pecorino Romano (this is made from sheep's milk).

Rigatoni with arrabbiata sauce, with serrano chili pepper and freshly shaved Pecorino Romano cheese.

WORD HISTORY:
Pasta-The ultimate origin of this word, very closely related to "paste," is unknown. It goes back to the Greek verb "passein," meaning "to sprinkle." This produced Greek "pasta," a type of porridge, perhaps from the notion of "sprinkling the grain into hot liquid" (or perhaps the reverse)? Latin borrowed the word as "pasta," but it took on the meaning "dough, paste" (grain or ground grain mixed with liquid). Italian inherited the word from Latin and it came to mean "dough formed into various shapes and then cooked in hot liquid" (whether this was in any way tied in with the Greek meaning of "porridge" (grains cooked in hot liquid) is unclear, but it's perhaps coincidence). English borrowed the word from Italian in the second half of the 1800s. Americans tend to pronounce the first part of the word as if "paw," and in England and other parts of Britain the first part usually rhymes with "last."