Ina Garten’s Easy 1-Pot Pasta Uses an ‘Unbelievable’ Amount of Garlic

Pasta is one of those comfort food meals that I could eat every day. It’s why when Stanley Tucci told Allrecipes that he basically does, I knew we were kindred spirits.

Typically, when I make pasta, I use a store-bought pasta sauce like Rao’s to make prepping extra painless. However, I recently discovered an Ina Garten sauce recipe that’s so delicious, it’s worth making from scratch. And, since we know Garten is just as big on store-bought shortcuts as we are, if she’s taking the time to make this one-pot sauce at home, we know it's going to be good.

Ina Garten's Arrabbiata Sauce

TikTok user Shay Spence shared Garten’s arrabbiata sauce recipe from her “Modern Comfort Food” cookbook on social media, captioning the video, “I made Ina’s arrabbiata sauce and remembered that it’s one of my favorite pasta sauces of all time.”

The spicy sauce only requires a handful of ingredients, including whole San Marzano tomatoes, red wine, fennel seeds, and crushed red pepper flakes—and only needs about 30 minutes on the stove. What sets Garten’s tasty sauce apart from your typical arrabbiata sauce is the amount of garlic. 

“Every time I start to make this pasta sauce, I just briefly question my sanity because it calls for so much olive oil and garlic,” Spence says.

Even Garten calls the amount of garlic “unbelievable,” but the 24 cloves are what gives the sauce that extra oomph of flavor. That’s right, Garten’s arrabbiata sauce recipe calls for a full cup—about 24 cloves—of garlic.

Those whole cloves of garlic go into 2/3 cup of olive oil and cook until they’re softened. Then Garten adds them to a food processor with two cans of San Marzano tomatoes and gives everything a rough pulse. The tomatoes—along with 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds, 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, 1/3 cup of dry red wine, and salt and pepper—go back into the pot of olive oil to simmer for 30 minutes. Then, Garten adds her cooked pasta of choice (she uses penne), along with some pasta water to thicken the sauce, and julienned fresh basil. She serves the pasta topped with a dusting of Parmesan cheese and more basil.

“It’s elegant, it’s earthy, and you can make it ahead,” Garten says.

I Tried Ina Garten's Arrabbiata Sauce

I’m a big garlic fan. Sometimes, I’ll even throw a few extra cloves into a recipe just to give my dish a little more zip. However, with Ina Garten’s arrabbiata sauce, that’s not necessary. 

Sure, peeling 24 cloves of garlic isn’t the most fun task, but it’s worth it for this recipe. Plus, you can always buy pre-peeled garlic if you don’t want to do it yourself.

Garten’s arrabbiata sauce is the perfect marriage of spicy and savory—and definitely doesn’t taste like something you can get out of a jar. I can see myself making this my new “Sunday sauce” recipe to save for easy meals throughout the week. I’ll just need to keep a lot of garlic bulbs on hand.