Arrabiata

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Guest Chef No. 7 My Dad

Growing up my Dad used to travel a lot during the week. At weekends he really liked to do some cooking to relax and to help my mum out as well. He would get pretty fixated on perfecting a certain dish, and cook it repeatedly week after week until he felt it was perfect. He went through a  risotto phase, and a curry phase, a brief chip phase and the most long lasting on has been the Italian tomato sauce phase!

There would be joking cries from my mother in relation to most dishes he'd make of "oh my god have you put chillies in it?" Most of the time chillies made a perfectly legitimate addition to most dishes - except the risotto I'm guessing. One of my most favourite dishes to which chillies are added is the wonderful pasta arrabiata, a rich and sweet tomato sauce served with pasta to which chili is added to give it a wonderful kick and extra depth. One of my all time favourite dishes and one of the many dishes that my Dad has most definitely perfected over the years.

Thanks for sharing this recipe Dad!

 Pasta Arrabiata

1 medium size onion cooked slowly in a big blob of good olive oil until soft and turning golden alongside 2-3 rashers of bacon.

While cooking this add:

i) plenty of fresh ground black pepper and

ii) 3 garlic segments finely chopped and

iii) a red chili finely sliced / or a pinch of chili powder or cayenne pepper.

When cooked add 2 tins of tomato (or even better 4-6 skinned fresh tomato with hard bit in middle cut out). Leave to bubble away for min of 30 minutes. Take off heat and add 2 teaspoon of sugar to take the bitterness off the tomato.

If you want to be really authentic then add a small beef bone when you put in the tomato and cook for 2-3 hours very, very slowly.

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