We’ve been so looking forward to trying this Fra Diavolo Pasta sauce from Csigi Chili Sauce since trying it a few months ago, but the perfect meal opportunity just hadn’t presented itself. Finally, the stars aligned and we had our idea. If we were going to make an Italian-type dish for dinner, we just had to make it in a chilehead sort of way. Reading the sauce’s description on the Csigi website, it read:

Using a secret family recipe, I’ve added fresh basil, red onions, and fresh orange habanero pods! This sauce is thick, hearty, spicy, and just downright delicious! Try it with your favorite pasta or seafood dish. Makes a fantastic lasagna or baked ziti. Add some as a base to your favorite chili recipe. Cook down some sausage, peppers, and onions with Csigi Gourmet’s Fra Diavolo Pasta Sauce for the best sausage and peppers you’ve tried. Better than what Mom used to make! It’s that bold!

One thing that we love to see in the hot & spicy products we use is that they are made with quality, all-natural products. Lars from Csigi Chilli Sauce has made it clear in previous comments that he feels the same way, so when we saw these ingredients it made us want to use this sauce in large quantities:

Ingredients: tomato puree, organic crushed tomato, red onion, tomato paste, extra virgin olive oil, basil, minced garlic, orange habanero chilies (fresh whole pods), extra coarse sea salt, turbinado sugar, coarse black pepper, spices

Cracking open the jar, you might not think this is all that much different than any other store-bought pasta sauce. However, the similarities start to go away once you examine it a little further. For one thing, the label’s just plain cool. Prego, Classico, and even Paul Newman can’t hold a candle to these products from an artistic standpoint. There’s a hint of chile pepper aroma to this sauce, but honestly it just smells like a really good, spice-laden pasta sauce.

Did someone say sausage? We found this really great spicy turkey sausage (not too high in fat, either) at one of our local grocery stores, and it seemed like the perfect type of meat to go with this pasta sauce. We let the sausage cook down in a little water until it browned a little then added it to the sauce to make it the compliment to our “pasta.” Our choice of pasta is what added an element of uniqueness to this dish.

Virtually everyone in the house, save for the children, is either trying to lose weight or just watching their carbohydrate intake in general. If you’ve not tried spaghetti squash, then you owe it to yourself to do so. Linda picked up this five pound spaghetti squash at the store to serve as our “pasta” for this meal. To prepare, cut the squash in half then scoop the seeds and inner stringy part out and discard. Add a small amount of water to a rectangular baking dish and place the halved squash face down in the dish. Cover with aluminum foil and cook in the oven at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of the squash. Ours cooked for 55 minutes. After baking, the “spaghetti” can be scooped out of the middle and served like pasta. You can see above what it looked like after cooking. A little firmer than pasta, but very tasty…and much less carbs.

Ah, dinner was served at last! The sauce itself was awesome, and far better than any store-bought sauce that claims to be spicy. Really, the habaneros add no more than just a tingle of heat. However, the overall flavor profile is thick, rich, and tomato-ey good. You’ll be surprised at how fresh this sauces tastes right out of the jar. The sauce was a runaway hit with all the palates here at home, from mild to hard-core heatseeker.

Overall recommendation: Unlike some pasta sauces that you really have to doctor up to suit what you cook, this sauce is as “plug-and-play” as a pasta sauce can be. Intensely flavorful with everything you would want in a pasta sauce (onions, garlic, tomatoes, and spices), this sauce has the extra bonus of a little habanero flavor as well. It won’t set off your mouth’s heat alarms, but will give you just enough chinense tingle to make you want to always have a jar of this around when you want to spruce up some pasta or sausage with some great marinara sauce. Great stuff, Lars!

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI