Sauces · Italian cuisine
Arrabbiata
Rome’s “angry” tomato sauce with garlic and chilli, classically with penne rigate.
At a glance
- Origin
- Rome, by the first half of the 20th century at the latest.
- Production
- Garlic and chilli softened in oil, peeled tomatoes cooked briefly.
- Ratio
- About 400 g peeled tomatoes and 2 garlic cloves per 400 g penne.
- Pairs with
- Traditionally penne rigate; also spaghetti.
- Use
- A fiery variant of plain tomato sauce.
Arrabbiata is a fiery tomato sauce of Roman cooking: peeled tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, garlic and chilli, with chopped parsley if you like. The name, “angry”, refers to the heat that is said to turn the eater’s face red.
Garlic is softened gently in the oil, the chilli goes in, the garlic is removed once fragrant and the tomatoes cook over a high flame for about ten minutes. Penne cooked al dente are tossed in the sauce and finished with parsley; grated pecorino is a later, optional addition.
Its exact origin is unknown. Rome’s tourist board notes that Ada Boni’s cookbook Il talismano della felicità already mentions “sugo all’arrabbiata”, and that it was common in Roman trattorias after the Second World War; other sources place its birth around the turn of the 20th century. It differs from plain sugo al pomodoro chiefly in its chilli and garlic.