Penne all'arrabbiata

Thus far in my Vegan January quest — where I forego meat, fish, dairy, and eggs — I’ve succeeded in making a vegan-friendly main and dessert, and with stellar results (pats self on the back). Both this Chocolate Olive Oil Cake and this Chickpea, Spinach, and Tomato Curry are hands down delicious, both recipes that should be part of your regular rotation and repertoire regardless of whether you’re cooking for vegans or not. Check and check.

Next up: a vegan pasta dish, a particularly tricky task given that pasta goes hand-in-hand with cheese, and very often, meat. There’s rigatoni alla carbonara, made with a hefty trifecta of eggs, Pecorino, and guanciale, plus lasagne alla bolognese, layered with bechamel and a beef, veal, and pork ragù. Your classic cannelloni are prepared with a spinach and ricotta filling, and pesto — green and olive-oily as it might be — relies on Parmesan for flavor and consistency. Those classic pasta dishes that forbid the use of cheese are anyways the ones made with fish (dairy and seafood almost never mix, per the rules of Italian cuisine).

My brainstorming commenced with a few Google searches titled “Vegan Pasta Recipes,” which I’m afraid led to disappointing results. I couldn’t quite — Pasta Purist that I am — come to terms with pasta sauces made with ingredients like avocado (!) or (gulp) hummus. Many recipes called for “vegan cheese,” which I’d doubt I’d find in any Italian supermarket (and even if I could, I’d be hard-pressed to buy it). Still another called for tofu to make a ragù (blasphemous!) and many others subbed in nutritional yeast for cheese, or almond milk for cream. After more than a decade of living in Italy, it all seemed downright sacrilgeous. What was next?! Cooking the pasta past al dente stage?

It turns out I’d been overthinking the whole thing. Once I went back to basics, I realized there were actually quite a few (naturally vegan) Italian pasta dishes at my disposal, ones that called for fuss-free ingredients. There’s minimalist spaghetti aglio e olio, made with olive oil, garlic, and hot pepper, not to mention classic pasta al pomodoro, which relies on good quality tomatoes and fresh basil for flavor. A hearty lentil mushroom sauce and a colorful tomato and pea sauce also came to mind, both of them prepared for me by HRH Carla Tomasi. There’s even pasta di semola, which is naturally vegan and just as delicious as fresh egg pasta. But I eventually landed on penne all’arrabbiata, a classic Roman primo piatto that is also 100% vegan-friendly by nature.

First things first: the word “arrabbiata” (roll those Rs!) translates to “angry” in Italian, meaning that this pasta is pretty much furious, evident in its distinct spiciness. A few dried chili (peperoncini) and garlic cloves waltz through a bit of olive oil — leaving it better than they found it — before going on to flavor the tomato sauce. A handful of parsley is added in at the end for color and freshness, and balances the chili nicely. Best of all, this is a pasta dish that is not meant to be served with cheese — a rare, holy Grail type deal — and also happens to hail from the Lazio region, or more specifically, Rome. Meaning that I needn’t have looked so far — the vegan pasta I was in search of was right in front of me this whole time.

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Looking for vegetarian recipes? Click here.

A couple of notes: If you’re not going vegan and simply can’t wrap you head around the idea of pasta without cheese, then arrabbiata goes well sprinkled with some Pecorino Romano. If you don’t have penne, feel free to use another short pasta like rigatoni. If you prefer, use a fresh peperoncino/chili instead of the dried ones. Note that this dish is spicy in the way that Italian food is spicy, i.e spicy but not incredibly so - feel free to up the chili if you want something a little more fiery.

PENNE ALL’ARRABBIATA

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:
1 lb (448 grams) penne
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 (800 gram) can of peeled whole tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
3 dried chili (peperoncini)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
A handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Directions:
Empty the can of tomatoes into a bowl and crush them with a fork to break them up (if you’re me, you’ll use kitchen scissors for this). Next, pour a the olive oil into a large saucepan and add the garlic cloves and chili. Fry it all lightly over low heat, until the garlic is fragrant.

Add the tomatoes to the pot. Increase the heat on the stove and bring the sauce to a bubble; let it cook this way for about five minutes, and then lower it to a simmer. Cover the pot with a lid, and let it cook for 25 or so minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Note that you can also cook it for 15-20 minutes, but I like to cook my sauce a bit longer, if possible. Season to taste with salt — I used about 1/2 a teaspoon, but I leave it up to you.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the penne according to package instructions for al dente. Reserve a cup or so of starchy cooking water.

Fish the chili out of the sauce to avoid that anyone directly bites into one (I speak from experience). You can also fish the garlic out at this stage if you want, too. Stir in the parsley.

Drain the pasta and pour it directly into the sauce. Heat through for a minute, adding some of the cooking water if necessary to make the sauce coat the pasta smoothly, then turn off the heat. Divide onto plates, and eat immediately with gusto.