I’m not gonna beat around this bush with this one. We’re talking cream, we’re talking carbs, but god darn it we’re talking delicious. Follow me…
Spicy Rigatoni
To start the recipe, we’re going to fry off some pancetta. This will not only add heaps of flavour to the sauce, but it’ll also provide enough fat to fry the onion.
Do I have to add pancetta?
If you can, then absolutely do. You can also sub bacon if you don’t have pancetta (see below for veggie alternatives).
Where does the spice come from?
Good old-fashioned dried chilli flakes, which I believe are often referred to as ‘red pepper flakes’ in the US. These are the easiest, most economic way to add spice to most things. Because you simmer them in the sauce too, they get to transfer their heat to the entirety of the sauce, instead of just tiny pockets of spice.
Tomato Based Sauce
Whilst this pasta is gorgeously creamy, its roots are tomato-based. This comes from both sun dried tomatoes and tomato puree (paste). It’s important to fry the tomato puree for a couple of mins. I know it sounds odd, but caramelizing the tomato puree changes the flavour quite considerably. It turns from quite a tart flavour to a much sweeter one. Process shots: add pancetta to large pot (photo 1), fry until crisp (photo 2), fry onion then fry garlic, chilli flakes and sun dried tomatoes (photo 3), fry tomato puree (photo 4).
One Pot Spicy Rigatoni
Once you’ve fried the tomato puree, you’ll want to add some white wine. This will not only help deglaze the pan, but it’ll also help cut through the richness of the sauce. It is however important to reduce the wine to burn off most of the alcohol, otherwise, it’ll be too pungent. Something cheap will do the trick, just so long as it’s dry, not sweet. From there, we can add in the stock, cream and uncooked pasta.
Why cook the pasta in the same pot?
Convenience – less washing up! Flavour – as the pasta cooks it also takes on the flavour of the liquid it’s cooking in.
Sauce Consistency & Pasta Texture
As the pasta cooks, it will release starch into the sauce, which will thicken it and create a creamy, glossy texture. The end result should be a fairly thick sauce that clings to the pasta. The pasta should be perfectly al dente by this point. If for whatever reason the sauce thickens too much before the pasta cooks, you can very easily fix this by just adding in more water as needed until the pasta cooks. Process shots: simmer wine (photo 5), add stock, cream and pasta (photo 6), simmer and stir until cooked (photo 7), stir in parmesan and basil (photo 8).
How do I prevent the sauce from curdling?
So long as you’re using heavy (US) double (UK) cream, you should be fine. You might only see curdling if cold cream hits boiling hot stock. To prevent this, just bring the cream to room temp and avoid using the stock when it’s freshly boiled.
How spicy is this pasta?
It’s definitely got a kick – I’d say 6 or 7/10. You can adjust this to your taste though by using less or more chilli flakes.
Can I make this vegetarian?
If I want to make this veggie I usually replace the pancetta with spinach (stir through at the end with the basil, around 3.5oz/100g works well). I then also stir in a pinch more parmesan to replace the loss of salty/richness from the pancetta. Also, be aware parmesan may not be vegetarian, so use a vegetarian variety if needed.
Can I use a different kind of pasta?
Yep! Any shortcut pasta will do the trick, I just like rigatoni 🙂
Serving Spicy Rigatoni
Once cooked, serve this up with some extra fresh basil and a pinch of chilli flakes. If you watched the video (which is in the recipe card below also), you will see I snuck on some burrata, which does happen sometimes. But that’s totally optional! Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this spicy rigatoni shall we?!
How to make Spicy Rigatoni (Full Recipe & Video)
For more spicy pasta recipes check out my Spicy Chicken Pasta and Penne Arrabiata! For more similar recipes check out these beauties:
One Pot Pasta Recipes
One Pot Creamy Beef Pasta One Pot Chili Mac One Pot Mac and Cheese One Pot Chicken Fajita Pasta One Pot Tomato Spinach Pasta One Pot Spicy Sausage Tortellini
