Spicy Rigatoni Alla Vodka

SPICY RIGATONI ALLA VODKA

Hands down one of my favorite dinners to make, a classic vodka sauce with rigatoni and spicy sausage. It’s creamy, comforting, and will probably become a favorite in your house too! It also comes together in the same amount of time as it takes for your pasta to cook, perfect for weeknight dinners.

Notes:

A CRUCIAL piece to making good pasta at home is:

1. Properly seasoning your water with salt prior to adding pasta. As Italians say, it should taste like the ocean!

2. Cook your pasta to al dente, which means 1-2 minutes prior to it being fully cooked as it should still have a bite to it. It will continue to cook in the sauce, and the sauce will cling to the pasta better.

3. Don’t you dare throw away that pasta water! Always save 1-2 cups of pasta water prior to draining your pasta. That starchy water is like liquid gold and will help create a glossy sauce that sticks perfectly to your pasta. In Italy, this is called “saltate in padella”, which refers to when you finish cooking the pasta in the sauce, resulting in a much more flavorful marriage of ingredients vs just pouring the sauce over. When you add the pasta water to the pan, it may look a bit liquidy at first, but as you keep tossing you’ll notice it will get quite glossy. This is also why you want to cook your pasta to al dente, because it will continue to cook in the sauce and you don’t want your noodles to overcook.

4. Since there are not a lot of ingredients in this, the key to making a flavorful sauce is to properly caramelize each ingredient prior to adding the next. Cooking the sausage until you get browned bits ensures you have a “fond” at the bottom of the pan that adds flavor to the dish. Caramelizing the shallots adds a sweetness that pairs really well with the tomato. And caramelizing the tomato paste allows the tomato flavor to deepen so it’s less acidic and more savory. Take your time with each and enjoy the process! This is one of my favorite recipes to make because I get to just vibe out.
5. I first started making this pasta with rigatoni as shown in the image, but have since been making it with lumache and love it so much more. Lumache is a pasta shape similar to shells, but gets it’s name because of the snail form. It has little pockets where sausage and sauce cling to and it’s just so delicious.
6. You can adjust spice preference for this to your liking. A pantry friendly way of doing this is with red pepper flakes, but if you can find calabrian chili paste (bomba sauce at Trader Joe’s), it adds this flavor complexity you don’t get with just red pepper flakes. I highly recommend checking it out!