Pilato
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N°02 · italian · easy · 20 min · serves 4
Penne Arrabbiata
Roman fury — garlic, chilli, tomato. Twenty minutes.
Ingredients
- Pilato Penne Pasta250g
- Garlic — minced4 cloves
- Red chilli flakes1 tsp
- Crushed San Marzano tomatoes400g tin
- Extra-virgin olive oil3 tbsp
- Fresh basil — torn at the end1 handful
- Sugar1 pinch
- Saltto taste
Method
Crush the tomatoes
Tip the tinned tomatoes into a bowl and crush them coarsely with your hands. You want texture, not purée — a sauce that clings to penne ridges.
Bloom the garlic and chilli
Warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and chilli flakes and let them bloom for sixty seconds, just long enough to perfume the oil. Never brown the garlic.
Build the sauce
Tip the crushed tomatoes into the pan with the salt and pinch of sugar. Simmer twelve minutes over medium-low, stirring occasionally, until reduced to a glossy, thick, brick-red sauce.
Boil the penne
Meanwhile salt four litres of water heavily and boil the penne to al dente, eleven minutes. Save half a cup of pasta water before draining.
Toss and tear basil
Pull the sauce off heat. Tip the penne in with a splash of pasta water and toss for thirty seconds until every tube is coated. Tear basil leaves over the top and serve immediately.
Chef's note. Arrabbiata means angry. The chilli should sting on the back palate — that's the point. Don't tame it with cream, don't drown it in cheese, and never let the garlic see brown.
Pilato's free masala sachet doesn't belong in classic arrabbiata — but a tiny pinch bloomed into the chilli oil layers cardamom and fennel over the heat in a way that quietly thrills.