Angry Sauce

So what a nice day I've had! I didn't go to work (I used my "Summer Friday." We get one Friday off per month during the summer months). I went shopping and bought two dresses, one is adorable and the other is very sophisticated and grown up. Then I came home and set myself to cooking. So what did I make on a day when I felt generally great? Arrabbiata Sauce (the "angry sauce" as Teresa calls it) over some penne purchased at A&S Fine Foods in Wyckoff, NJ (awesome as always, and now you Real Housewife viewers out there have seen the inside of A&S!). Arrabbiata Sauce is a spicy sauce, and I can still feel the oils from the pepper flakes on my mouth and lips. Delicious!

So, if my name and super pale appearance in the photo i posted didn't tip you off, I'm not Italian. The majority of my ancestors are from Northern Europe, Ireland, England, France and the Netherlands. So cooking spicy foods shouldn't really be in my blood. It's a joke in my family, actually, when my grandmother eats something sprinkled with pepper she immediately will grab her glass of water and go "oh! oh my! that's too hot for me!" So, generally speaking Northern Europeans overcook their meats and underspice their foods! I don't mind food from Ireland/England/Germanic/Scandinavian Countries, I actually enjoy those foods, but I really really love foods with a lot of flavor (and prefer my meat cooked rare!). That's why I really enjoyed this arrabbiata sauce!

The sauce takes a while to cook, but the good thing about sauce is that it requires little interference when cooking. After I made the "Quickie Sauce" I just sauteed some onions and garlic and pepper flakes and just threw it all in the base tomato sauce I had made. I just let the sauce simmer for an hour!
The recipe recommends 40 minutes, but it goes on to day the longer the sauce simmers the spicier it becomes. Who am I to turn down extra spice? Not being particularly hungry and in a rush (ah the joys of time off) I left it on the extra twenty minutes. With excellent results. The sauce was spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. Like I said, it's the sort of spice that lingers with you afterward. I think that's a good thing!Anyway, I am headed out to a housewarming party (though it's less housewarming centric and more party centric, I believe) tonight, but I might have an update tomorrow! Check back then and enjoy this lovely June Friday!