Penne Arrabbiata
A chilli and tomato based pasta with bacon.
Equipment
- 1 large pot for boiling pasta
- 1 large frypan for cooking sauce
Ingredients
- 500 grams (1.1 pounds) penne or other dried pasta
- 2 tsp salt
- 400 grams (0.9 pounds) streaky bacon chopped
- 4 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2x 400g tins crushed tomato (1.76 pounds)
- ½ to 1 tsp cayenne pepper powder (note 1)
- 50 g finely grated parmesan and more for serving
- 2 tsp Italian herbs
- ½ cup pasta cooking water
Instructions
- To your large pot, fill with fresh water, add your salt and bring to the boil. Once boiling add pasta and cook til al dente.
- While pasta is cooking, add chopped bacon to a cold frypan, and heat on medium heat. Let the fat render from the bacon, and allow bacon to crisp to almost your desired doneness. Add your garlic and cook for 2 mins.
- Add tinned tomato to your bacon pan, along with the Italian herbs and your desired amount of cayenne pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes, letting all the flavours develop and the sauce to thicken.
- Once pasta is cooked through, drain, reserving some of the cooking water. Add cooking water and drained pasta to bacon and tomato, and mix well on medium heat. Add the bulk of the cheese. Once the sauce is thickened to your liking, you are done.
- Serve into warm bowls and sprinkle the top of each plate with the rest of the parmesan cheese.
Notes
NOTE 1 - For young children I would omit the cayenne pepper. For older children and adult households I would use 1/2 a teaspoon of cayenne. For spicy lovers I would use 1 teaspoon or more.