I saw an interestingly shaped pasta at the grocery store and I of course just had to pick it up. It is called “maccheroni calabrese” and it looks like little hand rolled cigars. It has been a while since I last made arrabiata sauce and I thought that it would go nicely on the maccheroni calabrese. Arrabiata is a quick, simple and tasty tomato and hot pepper sauce.
I eat pasta fairly often and I normally have parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano in my fridge. My recipe for arrabiata sauce calls for pecorino romano but I was out. I went to the market and the cheese shop was also out! I had almost lost hope but the store clerk said they did have pecorino crotonese. I had never heard of pecorino crotonese but it had pecorino in the name and I like most cheeses. So I walked home with some pecorino crotonese.
It turns out that pecorino means that it is made from sheep’s milk and the romano or crotonese indicates the region of Italy where the cheese was made. The pecorino crotonese tastes great. I will have to pick up some pecorino romano and do a side by side comparison with the pecorino crotonese.
Maccheroni Calabrese alla Arrabiata
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion (finely chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 jalapeno pepper (finely chopped)
- 1 28oz can tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup pecorino romano (grated)
directions
- Heat the oil in a sauce pan.
- Add onions and saute until soft.
- Add garlic an jalapeno pepper and saute until fragrent.
- Add tomato puree, red pepper flakes, oregano and balsamic vinegar.
- Reduce heat and simmer.
- Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.
- Serve on pasta or gluten free Pasta and enjoy!
Aren’t we lucky to have such an ethnically diverse city with practically any food avaiable to us?
Toronto is pretty good for being able to find groceries/foods from many different places.
Kevin, it does look wonderful and I love the addition of balsamic vinegar. I’m definitely going to try that.
Thanks for sharing with Presto Pasta Nights.
Pinned several from your “pantry friendly recipe” email just now looking for a dinner idea. Might I sub parmesano reggiano for the pecorino? Would another macaroni pasta of a similar shape suffice? I have home canned heirloom tomato sauce and home grown roasted assorted chiles. Going to be dealing with a lot of substitutions in this pandemic lockdown.
You can use parmigiano reggiano in place of the pecorino and any pasts shape will work! Enjoy!