Arrabbiata Sauce
Arrabbiata sauce is an easy to make fiery, vegan, tomato sauce spiced up with either fresh chilis or dried flakes.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
- 1-2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes or 1 fresh cayenne chili pepper, chopped finely, including seeds
- 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes preferably San Marzano (800 g)
- 1 pinch sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Peel and crush the garlic with the back of a large kitchen knife.
- In a heavy bottom skillet, heat the olive oil over medium low heat and add the peeled garlic and crushed red pepper flakes or chopped fresh chili. If you like spice, add the chili flakes (1 teaspoon is plenty but if you like really, really spicy food, use 2 teaspoons). Cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic just starts to turn golden, for about 2 minutes, being careful it doesn’t brown or burn.
- Add the salt, sugar, canned tomatoes and their juices to the pan, crushing the whole tomatoes with your hands or cutting with a pair of kitchen scissors as you add them. Turn the heat up to medium, bring to a simmer and crush the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon to help them break down.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens and the tomatoes have broken down.
- Check for seasonally and adjust, if need be. Remove the garlic cloves. You can puree the arrabbiata sauce if you prefer a creamier version.
- Serve with cooked pasta, preferably al dente or store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Notes
Notes and Tips
- If at any point, the arrabbiata sauce starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, add a little bit of water to loosen up the sauce and stir well.
- Don’t cut out the pinch of sugar. When using canned tomatoes, it’s a small yet important step to help remove that bitter taste of the canned tomatoes.
- If the sauce seems too liquidy after the 20 minutes of cooking, continue to cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until thickened. You can also try raising the heat slightly to help the extra water evaporate.
- It’s important to fry the red pepper flakes in the olive oil before adding the canned tomatoes. If you decide you would like it spicier when you check for seasoning at the end, you can add more at this point but the spice won’t evenly be distributed throughout the arrabbiata sauce. Instead, you will have some spicier bites and other bites with less heat. Take note and adjust accordingly when you add the crushed red pepper flakes to the oil the next time you make this recipe.
- San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes are by far the best quality canned tomato for this spicy arrabbiata sauce. If you prefer, however, you can use any variety of canned tomato that is available to you.
Substitutions And Variations
- If you prefer to use fresh chilies, substitute the dried red chili flakes with 1 fresh red cayenne pepper chilli, finely chopped, including seeds.
- Although not traditional in the original recipe, some people like to add a few torn basil leaves to the sauce right before serving to brighten up the flavor.
- I prefer my tomato sauces to be smooth, which you can achieve by pureeing with an immersion blender.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!