Food: Pasta With a Kick

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Pasta With a Kick
Monday, October 31, 2005

When it comes to pasta, I admit that I am not much of a connoisseur. I am usually content to just eat spaghetti with meat sauce or even just macaroni and cheese. Rarely do I venture out and try pastas that are any more exotic than that. For example, I never eat pasta with white sauce or with wine in the sauce. Nor do I eat pasta with seafood in it. Then, a few weeks ago, I went out to lunch with a friend of mine at a local Italian restaurant and she convinced me to try something called Arrabbiata pasta. After listening to her tell me how much I would like it, I gave in and ordered it. Boy, am I glad I did! I am hooked on this stuff now!

As I said, I am not much of an expert on pasta, so I don't know if I'll be able to describe Arrabbiata pasta in a way that does it justice. First of all, our waiter told us that it means "angry pasta" or something like that, which is actually a pretty fitting name for it. You see, Arrabbiata pasta sauce has a great kick to it. The sauce is very hot and spicy, and has such a wonderful flavor. To tell you the truth, I had always thought pasta was a rather boring dish before. I certainly don't feel that way anymore!

Arrabbiata pasta is usually made with penne-style noodles, which is my favorite kind of pasta to begin with. As with all pasta dishes, the sauce is what really separates this variety from the rest. Arrabbiata sauce contains a mixture of crushed peppers (either red or cayenne), tomatoes, garlic, salt, and black pepper. Many Arrabbiata sauces also have bacon bits in them. The peppers are obviously what gives this type of sauce its kick, so you might want to stay away from this particular dish if you are not a big fan of peppers. That being said, I usually don't care too much for spicy foods myself, but find that I am able to handle Arrabbiata pasta without any problems. Sure, I have to drink an extra glass of water or two at dinner, but that's about the extent of my "discomfort". In addition, different restaurants would of course have slightly different Arrabbiata pasta sauce recipes, so one place might have a much hotter version than another. The key is to find a restaurant with the version that you like best; don't give up if you run into dishes that are either too bland or too spicy.

Arrabbiata pasta sauce is also available in jars at the grocery store, so you can whip up your own version at home, too. I've heard that this kind of sauce works great with any style (shape) of pasta noodles, so go ahead and experiment if you want to. Furthermore, I've heard that Arrabbiata sauce is wonderful on rice as well. I haven't tried that yet, but it sounds interesting and I can certainly see how that would liven things up.

So if you are looking for a pasta dish with some extra pizzazz, try Arrabbiata pasta. It definitely packs an unexpected punch!

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