This rigatoni arrabbiata is a delicious, easy-to-make pasta with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil. Ready in just 30 minutes, it's a quick weeknight meal that will change your life!
½cup parmesan cheesesubstitute with vegan parmesan of choice
½teaspoon black pepper
1teaspoon salt
2tablespoonsbutteroptional, for finishing sauce
1tablespoonfresh basilchopped
Instructions
Salt a large pot of water like the ocean! Cook the pasta following the box instructions but stop short of 2-3 minutes (packages typically list 10 to 15 minutes, so if it says 10 minutes, stop cooking at 7 minutes). Reserve some pasta water for later, about 1⁄2 cup. Set aside.
Add minced garlic while the oil is still cold, when the garlic starts to sizzle, add red pepper flakes, and dried thyme. Fry on low heat for about 2 minutes. Stir constantly so the garlic doesn’t burn.
Add a can of peeled whole tomatoes and stir on medium heat for about 8 minutes until the sauce thickens. You can use a wooden spoon to crush the tomatoes a bit (but not too much) to release the juices.
Add the parmesan cheese, and stir for about 1 minute. You can use vegan parmesan instead as well. Taste, and then add salt / black pepper to taste.
Add the pasta and butter to the sauce. Stir until just combined. If the sauce looks too dry, you can add a bit of the pasta water. Note: If you're going vegan, you can skip the butter step, or swap with plant-based butter.
Serve immediately with fresh basil!
Notes
Salt the pasta water generously! It should taste briny. For 1 pound of rigatoni, I recommend 2 tablespoons of salt to 1 gallon of water.
I recommend cooking the pasta 2 to 3 minutes under package directions since you'll finish cooking the pasta in the sauce. If you cook to package directions, it might be too mushy!
Arrabbiata literally means "angry pasta" so it's definitely got a kick to it. Make sure to adjust the spice levels to suit your taste.
Rigatoni can be substituted with any short, tubular pasta (e.g., penne, shells, ziti, cavatappi, etc.)
The traditional recipe calls for parsley, but I've used basil (mostly because the batch of parsley I had in my fridge the day I shot this recipe was all wilted, and I wanted something fresh instead). So if you want to go a more traditional route, make sure to garnish with parsley, not basil!