This Carbone’s Spicy Rigatoni pasta dish is made with rigatoni, butter, onions, tomatoes, Calabrian chilies, vodka, and heavy cream.

Carbone is one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. I love ordering what they are famous for - the spicy rigatoni. The key to making this Spicy Vodka sauce is using crushed Calabrian chilies. I love spicy foods and Calabrian chilis can be pretty hot, but the heavy cream balances the spiciness out. It is up to you to add the chilies if you can’t handle the spice!

If you love this recipe, feel free to try my Crab Marinara with Linguini and my Lobster Bucatini.

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Ingredients
Instructions
Substitutions
Variations
Equipment
Storage
Top tip
Carbone’s Spicy Rigatoni
Food safety

Ingredients

You'll only need a few simple ingredients to make this. The exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below. Here's an overview of what you'll need:

Rigatoni
Butter
Vidalia onions
San Marzano tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
Calabrian chilies
Vodka
Heavy cream

See recipe card for Carbone’s Spicy Rigatoni quantities.

Instructions

In a large saucepan on low heat, add the butter and wait for it to melt. Stir in the onions and cook for about 4 minutes. Pour in the water and season with a pinch of salt. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent.

Pour in the tomatoes into the onions. Stir well and add the olive oil, Calabrian chilies, vodka and butter. Stir and bring to a boil. Simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes.

While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water. When the sauce seems about ready, add the cream and 3 tablespoons pasta water.

Combine the sauce with the pasta.

Substitutions

Tomatoes: I recommend using the whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes in a can for the best taste.

Onions: I would use vidalia onions, although yellow onions work.

Calabrian Chilies: You can use calabrian chili paste or crushed calabrian chilies. I actually bought whole calabrian chilies and crushed them myself.

Vodka: I used titos, but any vodka works since we will be cooking it off.

Heavy Cream: You can use whole milk or half and half, but for best consistency, the heavy cream works best.

Variations

Cooking is a chance to be creative! Have fun with it and feel free to make your own variation.

Spicy - add extra chili pepper flakes or Calabrian chilies.
Deluxe - add toasted bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and parsley.
Kid friendly - skip the Calabrian chilies and use fun sized pasta.

Check out this Vegan Pasta e Fagioli.

Equipment

Equipment can have a big impact on how a recipe turns out. Stone bakeware takes longer to heat up than metal pans, and also retain heat for longer, which could make the recipe more watery, or burnt on the outsides.

I love using my Caraway pots, pans and baking sheets for best quality. Get yourself a discount by clicking here!

Storage

This will be good in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

These ingredients don't stand up well to freezing.

Top tip

Make sure the onions are translucent before adding the rest of the ingredients.