Posted by Tammy

Arrabiata sauce is an Italian pasta sauce. The word “arrabiata” literally means “angry sauce” and comes from the southern part of the Italian peninsula. This is the first Italian (and probably only) Italian sauce I’ve made that might make a Korean sweat (or want to blow their nose).

First, soak your garae tteok soak in a hot water bath (not boiling water) for 10 minutes (check the instructions on the package of tteok you bought at the Korean grocery store for recommendations on this step). While the garae tteok are soaking, start on your Arrabiata sauce.

Warning: Several of the recipes for Arrabiata sauce I read start off something like this: “Saute the gochugaru and red pepper flakes in about 3 tbsp. olive oil. Add garlic and saute until you start to smell garlic in your kitchen.” I’d say do this at your own risk. Unless you have a commercial kitchen with a heavy-duty fan, you will mace yourself and your family (and possibly set off your fire alarm) and that’s not a good first step unless you want your spouse, children and family pets to be very angry with you.

Here are the ingredients

1 lb garae tteok noodles (presoaked)
1 teaspoon Korean pepper powder (gochugaru) or hot paprika
1 teaspoon Italian red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons Olive oil
5 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup red wine (use a wine that you’d actually drink)
1 can (14 1/2 oz) chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Start with approximately 3 tbsp. olive oil in your sauce pan. Add garlic and saute until you start to smell garlic in your kitchen. Add the onions and saute them until they are nearly translucent. At this point, add the gochugaru, Italian red pepper flakes and tomatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes. Serve it while it’s hot!

Tammy Quackenbush lives in San Francisco.  Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for her Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking two years ago (had to put her college degree to use somehow).  Her recipes (mostly in video form) have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.

Tags: All Korean Food, ddeokbokki, Korean Recipes, recipe, tteokbokki