If you love the velvety creaminess of traditional alla vodka sauce but crave a little heat, you’re going to love our copycat Carbone Spicy Alla Vodka recipe. While the vodka brings out the incredible flavors of the tomatoes, the addition of finely chopped onion and Calibrian chiles raises the bar and makes this sauce vibrant.
Easy to prepare in about 30 minutes, the trick is to let the onions caramelize until they are golden brown. Meanwhile, once the tomatoes and cream have heated through, simply blending them with an immersion blender ensures the velvety texture this sauce is known for. The final steps of adding the freshly grated Parmesan cheese and reserved pasta water takes minutes. Trust us, this sauce is special – and the perfect way to make any night of the week a mini-occasion in minutes!
Carbone-Inspired Spicy Pasta Alla Vodka
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 1/2 cups onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons crushed Calabrian chiles in oil
- 1 6-oz. can tomato paste
- 1 14.5-oz. can Whole San Marzano tomatoes
- 1/4 cup vodka
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Kosher salt
- 1 pound rigatoni or pipette pasta
- 1 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
Instructions
- In a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, melt butter. Add onions and cook, stirring often, until golden brown and caramelized, 18 to 20 minutes. Add garlic and chiles and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer about 2 tablespoons of the cooked onion mixture to a small bowl; set aside.
- Add tomato paste to pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly and darkened in color, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in tomatoes along with their liquid and the vodka, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Bring to a simmer.
- In a medium bowl, break up tomatoes by hand. Add to pot and cook, until sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in heavy cream until fully incorporated.
- Use an immersion blender or pour sauce into a traditional blender and blend until smooth. Return sauce to pot.
- Add 2 tablespoons salt to a large pot of boiling water and add pasta. Cook until al dente according to package directions. Reserve 1½ cups pasta water before draining.
- Return sauce to a simmer over medium-low heat. Add ½ cup pasta water and Parmesan and stir until incorporated. (For a smoother sauce, add pasta water ¼ cup at a time until you reach your desired consistency.) Season to taste with salt.
- Add reserved cooked onion mixture and pasta to sauce and toss until fully coated and heated through.
- Serve immediately with a light sprinkling of Parmesan.
Gluten-Free Pasta Dough
Equipment
- 1 KitchenAid Stand Mixer & pasta attachments optional, but really helps!
Ingredients
- 2 cups Cup4Cup gluten-free flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Place the 2 cups flour on a plate and create a well in the center. Add the eggs and egg yolk into the well. Using a fork break up the eggs and slowly start to mix the flour into the eggs a little at a time. When the mixture forms a rough dough, pour the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed in rounded, folding motions to bring it together. Cut into 4 pieces and wrap three of them tightly with plastic wrap.
- Dust the the first piece of dough with gluten free flour and flatten slightly with the heel of your hand, making sure the dough is flat and not overly sticky (be generous with the flour). Using the pasta roller attachment on setting 1, feed one end of the pasta into the machine. This will begin to flatten it into a sheet. After each pass through the machine, fold the sheet in half and sprinkle both sides with generous amounts of flour, spreading it evenly across the dough until there aren't any sticky parts. Continue feeding, folding, flouring, and putting it through the roller again until the sheet stretches to the width of the machine. Be patient, the more you fold it and put it through the roller dusted with flour, the smoother it will get! As soon as the pasta reaches the end-to-end width, change the setting of the attachment to 2. Repeat the folding, flouring and feeding process once through. Then do another pass on setting 3 (our preference). For thinner pasta, continue to setting 4. Repeat this step with the other sheets of dough from the ball.
- Once your sheets are all flattened, switch the current attachment on the stand mixer to the attachment that reflects the pasta shape you're looking to create. Feed your sheets through the attachment one by one, and you should have a finalized pasta shape ready to go!
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Season generously with salt. Add the pasta and cook for 1 ½ to 2 minutes or until the pasta is al dente.
- Note: Fresh pasta cooks extremely quickly, so keep an eye on it!
