Arrabbiata sauce (aka sugo all’arrabbiata) is a classic Italian sauce known for it’s spicy heat. It’s a super simple sauce with only 4 main ingredients in the traditional recipe: olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic and tomatoes. This is such an easy recipe where you cook the chili pepper flakes and garlic in the oil before adding the tomatoes and simmering until the sauce thickens and all of the flavours come out and mingle! There are a lot of variations on this recipe with optional ingredients like onions, parsley, basil, pecorino roman cheese, parmesan cheese, etc. No matter how you make this sauce, it’s super easy and takes less than 20 minutes, plenty of time to cook some pasta to serve it with! Another great option is to add a meat such as shrimp, chicken or fish!
Arrabbiata Sauce
The classic Italian spicy arrabiata sauce, that’s so easy to make!
ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced (optional)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced/grated
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
- 1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons basil, thinly sliced (optional)
directions
- Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the onion and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
- Add the tomatoes and simmer, until the sauce thickens, about 10 minutes, breaking the tomatoes apart with a wooden spoon or masher, as it cooks.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Mix in the basil and enjoy!
Option: Garnish with pecorino romano (or parmesan) cheese!
Tip: Cook the pasta as the sauce cooks.
I’m guessing that “add the oil and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes” should read “add the onion and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes”, so that’s what I will do!
That is correct!
That looks beautiful! What is that shape of pasta called?
In Italy, traditionally it is penne
In step one, do you mean “add the onion”?
I have seen many recipes for making sauce, but I like the method of making Arabiata sauce. This is a traditional sauce recipe. Thank you for sharing such a recipe.