With summer along came my need to go on a hedonistic gastronomical journey through Italy. Sine I cook according to my mood, lately there’s been a lot of pasta, pesto, tomatoes and olives. So today here you’ll find a recipe for arrabiata, a classic Italian hot sauce made out of chilies, garlic and tomatoes. In the original, they use dried chilies and serve them with penne, but I use fresh ones and spaghetti. Arrabiata means angry.
Ingredients for 6 people:
- olive oil
- 500 g of spaghetti (I use Barilla, spaghetinni no 3)
- 4 fresh chilies
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 lemon
- 800 g of plum tomatoes
- 3 anchovies
- salt
- parsley
- Parmigiano
Preparation:
- Deseed and slice up 4 chilies.
- In a large pan, heat up 4 table spoon of olive oil, add the chilies and 4 sliced up cloves of garlic. Cook on a low heat until the garlic browns.
- Add the plum tomatoes, then grate the zest of 1 lemon, add the anchovies and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
- Season to taste then simmer for 10 more minutes. When done, mash the bigger tomatoes into smaller pieces with a potato masher.
- Meanwhile cook the spaghetti al dente.
- Tip the pasta into the sauce, add a handful of chopped parsley, juice of half a lemon and a handful of grated Parmigiano and mix well.
- Serve drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and a bit more of Parmigiano. I like to add a bit of ricotta on top, works well with the spiciness of the sauce.
Enjoy,
T 🙂