There are pasta sauces and then there are pasta attitudes. This is the second kind.
Ten minutes. One jar. The kind of dinner that makes everyone think you did more than you did. The hot pepper cream goes straight into the pan with a little olive oil, tomato passata, loosened with pasta water until it coats every strand. That's all there is to it.
But the depth in it — the preserved chili, the olive oil it's settled into, the warmth that builds rather than bites — that's what makes a bowl of weeknight pasta feel like you've been somewhere. Like someone who knows what they're doing made dinner.
You did. You opened a very special jar.
One jar. Ten minutes. Nobody's complaining.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Tutto Sicilia Hot Pepper Cream
- 200g spaghetti or linguine
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 to 1.5 cups / 250ml Tomato puree with the likeness of tomato passata
- A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved (optional but very good)
- Pecorino or parmesan, grated, to serve
- Reserved pasta water
- Sea salt
Instructions
- Cook pasta in well-salted boiling water. Reserve a generous cup of pasta water before draining.
- While pasta cooks, warm olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until just golden — about 1 minute.
- Add hot pepper cream and stir into the oil.
- If using cherry tomatoes, add them now and cook for 2–3 minutes until softened.
- Pour in the tomato passata. Simmer gently for 2–3 minutes.
- Add a splash of pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed.
- Add drained pasta directly to the pan. Toss to coat, adding more pasta water until the sauce clings to every strand.
- Serve with grated pecorino and nothing else required.
Nonna's Notes
She put more in than the recipe said. Adjust accordingly.
This is the pasta you make on the nights when you almost ordered delivery. Make it once and you'll remember it next time. The jar doesn't ask much of you. Ten minutes. And then relax into the evening.
This is the pasta you make on the nights when you almost ordered delivery.
