Penne Arrabiata

SERVES: 4
TIME: 15 minutes

Coarse salt
1 pound penne
2 cups of your favorite tomato sauce (see the recipe included with the Eggplant Parmesan)
1 long red chili, cut into quarters (remove seeds if you don’t want it too spicy)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup firmly packed, finely grated pecorino cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)

Set a large pot of water on to boil and season with a few big pinches of salt. Boil the penne for two minutes less than the package tells you to. Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce with the pieces of chili in a large frying pan over low heat to infuse the chili into the sauce. Reserving about a teacup of boiling water from your pasta pot, drain the pasta and add it to the frying pan with the tomato sauce. Stir the pasta and sauce together with the olive oil and let it cook on low heat for two minutes, adding a bit of the reserved pasta water if necessary. You want the pasta to be just coated by the sauce, not swimming in it. Turn off the heat, remove the pieces of chili, stir in the pecorino and serve.