By Grocery List Plus Editorial Staff | Published on June 14, 2026
Serves 4
614 cal · 50 min
Spaghetti all'Arrabiata
Recipe GLPRd4f852261c75ba
A classic Italian pasta dish with a spicy tomato sauce made with garlic, red chilies, and fresh tomatoes. Finished with crispy breadcrumbs and herbs for texture.
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Ingredients
7 tablespoons olive oil
dried red chilies, crumbled or finely chopped
4 cloves garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
3 14-ounce cans cans plum tomatoes, sieved, or passata
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
18 ounces spaghetti
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons stale bread crumbs
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
fried sage leaves
Directions
Heat 6 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the crumbled dried red chilies and sliced garlic, stirring gently for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant, being careful not to burn the garlic.
Add the finely chopped red onion to the pan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to soften.
Pour in the sieved plum tomatoes or passata, and stir well to combine. Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer, then reduce the heat to low. Let the sauce simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened and the flavors have melded. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package directions until al dente, usually about 9 to 12 minutes. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water before draining.
In a small skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add the stale bread crumbs and toast for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden and crispy. Set aside.
Stir the red wine vinegar into the tomato sauce and taste for seasoning, adjusting salt and pepper as needed.
Add the drained spaghetti directly to the sauce and toss gently to coat, adding splashes of reserved pasta water as needed to create a silky consistency. The sauce should lightly cling to the pasta without being soupy.
Divide the spaghetti among four warm bowls. Top each serving with the crispy bread crumbs, fresh thyme, and fried sage leaves if using. Drizzle lightly with additional olive oil and serve immediately.
Comments
This is a near-perfect weeknight pasta in Charlotte. All ingredients are standard stock at Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Kroger, and Walmart year-round; fresh tomatoes may lean toward canned in winter, which the recipe accommodates. At roughly $1.50 to $2.00 per serving (ripe tomatoes and bulk spaghetti do the work), it is genuinely cheap. The stated 50 minutes is honest if you account for the sauce simmering—no hidden knife work. The one small caveat: arrabiata's charm is its simplicity, so the bread crumbs, vinegar, thyme, and sage, while delicious, push it toward a composed dish rather than the rustic Roman original, which means you're committing to a longer ingredient list than the name suggests, and leftovers lose some crispness on the crumbs overnight.
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