Ina Garten's Penne Arrabiata | Barefoot Contessa | Food Network

Penne arrabiata. There are three things I love about this dish. It's elegant, it's earthy, and you can make it ahead. I mean, what's not to love about that? I'm making penne arrabiata. Arrabiata sauce is really kind of a classic Italian pasta sauce made with tomatoes. Mine has an unbelievable amount of garlic in it, which I'm going to cook very slowly in olive oil. It's going to be really sweet and delicious. So nobody wants to peel 24 cloves of garlic. So what I do is I blanch them in a pot of boiling water just for about 15 seconds, and then you'll see the skins just slip right off, just like that. Okay, so that's a cup. So I've got two-thirds of a cup of olive oil that I've got warmed. I'm going to put the garlic in and just cook it for about 10 minutes, just until the outside is like just barely browned and the inside's really tender. Okay, we'll let that cook for about 10 minutes. Okay, next is the tomatoes. So I've got two 28-ounce cans of San Marzano tomatoes. I think San Marzano are the best quality canned tomatoes. And I've got whole tomatoes. I'm going to put them in the food processor and just chop them up. I'm just putting them in the food processor so I can control the consistency of the tomatoes. And I'm draining them because I don't want the sauce to be watery. Nobody wants watery sauce. Okay, I'll make Bloody Mary's out of the rest. Okay, get them in. Good. And then I'm just going to chop them up, just like that. You don't want a puree. You just want them roughly chopped. Okay, I think the garlic is just about ready. And I'll show you what I was looking for. These are great. I wish you could smell it. Nicely browned on the outside and perfectly cooked through. Okay, I'm going to take the garlic and put it right into the tomatoes. And then I'm going to chop that up and then cook it all together with some fennel. This recipe actually is inspired by Missy Robbins, who has the most incredible pasta restaurant in New York called Missy. It's in Brooklyn. And she makes her arrabbiata sauce with 24 cloves of garlic. And it's so good. And I'm just going to chop that up. So you get bits of garlic in the sauce. And then this whole thing goes right back into the oil. Try and do it without getting it all over yourself. So this is going back on the stove. Turn on the heat. And I'm going to take two teaspoons of fennel seeds. You can do it in a mortar and pestle, but I think this is actually better to grind them yourself. What I do is just chop them up. And they're going to bounce all over the place, but it's really worth it. And I think what you do is you get a lot of the oils out of the fennel seeds. Just give it a rough chop like that. They're going to get tenderized when the sauce cooks. I actually prefer using whole fennel seed rather than ground. Ground kind of loses its flavor. When you chop up whole fennel seed, you get all of those essential oils in it. And fennel has this like anise flavor that's just great, particularly with tomatoes. Okay, right into the sauce. Right there. One teaspoon of hot red pepper flakes. Okay, next is a third of a cup of red wine. I'm using an Italian wine, of course, since it's an Italian dish. I'm using a Chianti. You want something very dry and kind of rough. Two-thirds of a cup. Just pour it right in. Yum. Tablespoon of salt. Make sure it's really well seasoned. Teaspoon of pepper. I'm always looking for how flavors complement each other. How the tomatoes make the red wine taste better. How the red wine makes the fennel taste better. This is going to do exactly that. The garlic flavors everything. So I'm just going to bring it to a boil. And then lower the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes. I'm almost done with the arrabbiata sauce. I'm just going to add some fresh basil to it. Gives it a nice fresh kind of peppery flavor. Okay, about a quarter of a cup. Right into the sauce. So I've got a big pot of boiling water. Salt and one pound of penne. And I'm cooking it to about two minutes less than it requires for al dente. And that's because I'm going to cook it in the sauce. So let's see how it's doing. Okay, great. It's perfect. With a wire strainer, just put it right into the pasta sauce. And that way all of the pasta sauce gets absorbed into the pasta. And it really flavors it. Very often what we do is we serve pasta and then we put the sauce on top. And it just kind of sits on the top. But this way it cooks into it. And a little bit of the starch from the pasta really thickens the sauce. So the two elements really work together. So that's all the pasta. Just give it a big stir. I'm just going to cook this all together. Oh, man overboard. It's going to cook together for two minutes. The pasta will be perfectly cooked and the sauce will be just really silken and delicious. You can really smell the garlic. But it's like soft, not sharp. In the meantime, while that cooks, I'm going to julienne a little more basil for garnish. I love pastas because you can make the sauce in advance. Just cook the pasta, cook it together, and you've got a fabulous dinner. Big salad. I'm a happy camper. Okay, so clear the decks. I need a big bowl. And the pasta should be done. This looks gorgeous. And you can really tell that the tomato sauce has gotten into the pasta. Who wouldn't want to have this for dinner? A little fresh basil on top. And lots of freshly grated parmesan. Actually, I call it grated parmesan, but it's really ground. I grind it in a food processor just because I like that kind of grainy texture of it. A fork. This is the kind of dinner anybody in the family would love. It's just not your ordinary tomato sauce. This is pasta arrabbiata with 24 cloves of garlic. It smells amazing. And it tastes so good. This recipe and more can be found at barefootcontessa.com.