This creamy Rigatoni Alla Vodka will have you skipping the restaurant and staying home for your favorite meal. It is so easy to make a perfect rigatoni with vodka sauce in your own home with this simple recipe.
30 minutes
Beginner-friendly
You’ll Learn: How to get restuarant quality flavor at home
Worth It: It’s creamy, comforting, and doable on a weeknight
Bonus: Customize pasta and protein with what you already have
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Restaurant quality at home – You’ll be amazed how easy it is to make a luscious and fancy restaurant level plate of pasta in the comfort of your own home. You can skip the takeout and make your favorite vodka sauce yourself!
- Comforting winter meal – This is one of my favorite things to make on a cold winter evening because it is so creamy and comforting.
- Easily customizable – change up the style of pasta and add any kind of protein you like to keep this pasta dish interesting and use what you have on hand.
Serving suggestions
I like to serve this vodka pasta with cooked Italian sausage. It is also delicious with meatballs like these air fryer turkey meatballs. I also like to make a little extra sauce and make vodka chicken parmesan using this panko chicken recipe.
You can serve this with some delicious homemade bread and a fresh salad. I like to serve it with this chopped Italian salad.
This vodka sauce recipe is perfect for a romantic date night. I like to serve it with some delicious wine and these flourless brownies for dessert.
Ingredients
- Rigatoni pasta – you can really use any kind of pasta for this vodka sauce, but I love using rigatoni because it perfectly coats the noodles and gets trapped inside.
- Salted butter – butter adds more flavor and richness to this sauce
- Yellow onion and garlic cloves – finely diced onion and minced garlic add a foundational layer of flavor to start the sauce
- Tomato paste – use a whole 6oz jar of tomato paste to give this sauce a deep tomato flavor
- Salt and crushed red pepper – to season the sauce. The pepper is optional.
- Vodka – the alcohol from the vodka cooks out in the sauce and leaves a slightly acidic taste that deepens the tangy tomato flavor of the sauce.
- Heavy cream – this sauce is thick and creamy thanks to the generous amount of heavy cream
- Freshly grated parmesan cheese – always use freshly grated parmesan cheese so that it evenly melts into the sauce.
Ingredient Substitutions
You can use any kind of pasta for this dish. I love a big rigatoni. Sometimes I even use a big thick rigatoni. Of course you can use penne pasta to make a classic penne alla vodka.
I prefer the taste of butter but feel free to use extra virgin olive oil instead. You can use shallots in place of the onion. Instead of chili flakes or red pepper flakes you can use a little calabrian chili paste to make the sauce a bit spicy.
Feel free to use pecorino romano cheese in place of the freshly grated parmesan cheese.
How to make
Step 1: Cook pasta and saute onion and garlic
To begin, boil rigatoni in a large pot of heavily salted water. Cook until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water before you drain the pasta.
Then, add butter to a sauté pan over medium-low heat. When butter is warm and melted, add diced onions to the pan and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for another 2 minutes (Image 1).
Step 2: prepare vodka sauce
Add the tomato paste to the pan and mix with the butter, onion and garlic (Image 2). Allow the tomato paste to toast in the pan for about 3 minutes. You want to be able to smell tomato cooking.
Carefully pour the vodka into the pan and mix in with the tomato paste. Let this cook for about 2 minutes stirring the whole time.
Pour heavy cream and parmesan cheese into the pan. Stir constantly until a smooth creamy sauce remains (Image 3).
Step 3: Mix noodles into Sauce
Pour the cooked rigatoni noodles and 1/2 cup reserved pasta water into the pan. Toss to combine everything (Image 4).
Allow the noodles to cook in the sauce for a couple minutes to ensure that each noodle is nicely coated. Serve with more freshly grated parmesan cheese and garnish with some fresh basil.
Storage, reheating and Freezing
Allow pasta to cool completely and store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. To reheat, place in a saute pan over low heat until warmed through. You may want to add some milk or cream and fresh parm to freshen the sauce when reheating.
Check out these other delicious Pasta recipes
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
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Recipe
Rigatoni Alla Vodka
Ingredients
- 8 oz rigatoni
- 4 tbsp salted butter
- 1/2 yellow onion finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper optional
- 1/3 cup vodka
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese freshly grated
Instructions
- Boil rigatoni in a pot of heavily salted water. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water before you drain the pasta.
- Add butter to a saute pan over medium-low heat. When butter is warm and melted, add diced onions to the pan and saute for about 3 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for another 2 minutes
- Add the tomato paste to the pan and mix with the butter, onion and garlic. Allow the tomato paste to toast in the pan for about 3 minutes. You want to be able to smell tomato cooking.
- Carefully pour the vodka into the pan and mix in with the tomato paste. Let this cook for about 2 minutes stirring the whole time.
- Pour heavy cream and parmesan cheese into the pan. Stir constantly until a smooth creamy sauce remains. Pour the cooked rigatoni noodles and 1/2 cup reserved pasta water into the pan. Toss to combine everything.
- Allow the noodles to cook in the sauce for a couple minutes to ensure that each noodle is nicely coated. Serve with more freshly grated parmesan cheese
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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