Our guests today are the hosts of the "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" podcast and I'm teaching my friends how to make spicy weekday sauce, or, arrabiata sauce. Pasta All'arrabbiata is simply a spicy tomato sauce. I'm going basically turn my weekday sauce into a spicy weekday sauce using Calabrian Chili. It's very delicious. Click down below to check out the podcast we did after this episode.
INGREDIENTS:
1 28oz can Whole Peeled Plum Tomatoes, Good Quality
¼ Cup, Calabrian Chili's, after blending (½ cup for extra spicy)
3-4 cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced
Fresh Basil
3 Tablespoons, Olive Oil (plus more for chilis and finishing the pasta)
Salt and Black Pepper
DIRECTIONSn
In a blender, add roughly enough Calabrian Chilis to the blender to yield 1/4 cup of pureed chilis. Puree with a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil to help it along. If you like it extra spicy, add 1/2 cup of blended chilis. Set aside.
Slice the garlic thin. Puree the tomatoes in a food mill or by pulsing in a blender on low.
Get a pot of salted water boiling on the stove for the pasta and a large pan next to it to make the sauce. Use a wide bottom pan so the sauce can reduce faster. Over medium heat, add the olive oil, enough to coat the bottom of the pan, then immediately add garlic, basil, and chilis to the cold oil and slowly bring up to temperature to infuse the oil with garlic, basil and spicy chili flavor. The oil is the vehicle to transfer all of the flavor to the tomatoes. Once the garlic starts to brown, then add pureed tomatoes and a few whole Calabrian chilis. Kick the heat up a little and reduce the sauce until it becomes the right thickness for pasta. It's not too thin, not too thick.
Once the sauce is 90% cooked, drop your pasta into the boiling water and cook 1-2 minutes less than the package instructs you to. 1-2 minutes before the packages says its "al dente" drain the pasta of all its water, you don't want pasta water in this recipe, then add to the sauce. Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce. This will further thicken the sauce as the pasta absorbs it, that's why you don't want it too thick. The idea is that now that the sauce and pasta have been "married" together, I can choose the exact moment that the pasta is perfectly al dente and then serve it at the exact moment. It's at that moment you want to get it off the stove, and start plating. Have your plates ready, plate the pasta, finish with parmesan cheese, olive oil and garnish with some of the chili's that were cooking in the sauce so the eater knows its spicy.
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