Ward really likes Jamie Oliver’s cooking, so when I came across this recipe for Spaghetti All’Arrabiata at Serious Eats, I emailed it to him. I email him recipes all the time - every time I come across a good looking recipe online, I like to send him the URL.

Well, that was on Wednesday, and guess what we had for dinner yesterday? That’s right! Jamie Oliver’s Spaghetti All’Arrabiata!

This is a wonderfully aromatic pasta dish, and even better, it tastes as good as it smells. I find that a lot of pasta dishes deliver when it comes to a divine scent, but fall flat when it comes to taste. Not Jamie’s Spaghetti All’Arrabiata. The scent drew me from the office, which is at the other end of the house; it was garlicky and onion-y and I followed it into the kitchen, suddenly aware that I was very hungry, indeed.

What I liked best about the sauce was that it did not have that overly tomato taste that a lot of tomato-based pasta sauces have. Instead, it was savory, with deep garlic and onion flavors and a dash of chili; a perfect touch of chili, really: enough to add bite but not enough to overwhelm the other flavors.

And the scent really did work wonders on our appetite. Sean had three helpings, and Ward and I both had seconds.

Here’s what it looked like before we dished it out of the pan:

The pangrattato looks burnt in the picture, but it wasn’t - it cooked to a deep tasty brown but shows up in the picture looking a little dark. The crunch of the pangrattato contrasted well with the smoothness of the pasta and sauce, so it’s a nice addition.

This dish is what Jamie Oliver would cook as his “last supper” - it’s his contribution to the compilation of recipes called My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals by Melanie Dunea. Jamie says it’s his favorite comfort food; it definitely has a place now on our list of great, aromatic, flavorful meals to make when we want something tasty, elegant and easy.

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