Arrabiatta sauce is a spicy marinara sauce. I first fell in love with Arrabiatta sauce at the Olive Garden when a bunch of my friends and I decided to order the never-ending pasta bowl. We all wanted to try more than one sauce/pasta/meat combination which is really hard because the portions are enormous! This recipe is from Rachel Ray’s first book Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals.

I have always found spaghetti sauce from a jar to be a little sweeter than I like but it is easy, fast and cheap. Fortunately, Rachel’s recipe is also very easy, cheap and fast. I find it really doesn’t take much more time than opening a jar of sauce and heating it up.

1-2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (a pool about the size of a half dollar)

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

red pepper flakes to taste

2 cans tomatoes (one crushed and one petite diced)*

20 leaves basil chopped into ribbons

Heat the olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes over medium heat until the garlic starts squeaking and the mixture begins to smell of garlic.  Then, add the tomatoes and heat until gently bubbling. Simmer on low heat for several minutes and stir in basil leaves. I usually stir in the basil a few minutes before my pasta is finished cooking.

You can put this together in the time it takes to heat up the water and boil your pasta. It tastes as great with ravioli as it does with Italian sausage and rotini. Plus it freezes really well! If I plan on eating this with Italian sausage I usually cook the sausage in the pan first, then make the sauce in the same pan (for added flavor) and add the sausage back to the pan just after adding the basil.

*I usually use one can of crushed tomatoes or sauce and one can of diced or petite diced tomatoes. I like the texture better with both kinds of tomatoes. I think it is too watery with just the crushed tomatoes and not saucy enough with only diced tomatoes.

If you like a sweeter sauce you can add some onion when you add the garlic.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe from Rachel Ray’s 30-Minute Meals.