Spicy Sausage Rigatoni

I think the focus here is the rigatoni pasta type.

Rigatoni isn’t the most popular pasta, and I dare say that I actually had not tried rigatoni until this viral spicy vodka recipe came about. But it has become my new favourite pasta type! I love how in one rigatoni, you are getting all that creamy tomato sauce coated all around and whatever small nuggets of sausage/diced onions which are trapped inside the large holes. It is a delight in one bite.

Recipe

Servings: Makes for 1 pax

Cooking Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

1 sausage (diced)
2 cloves of garlic (sliced)
1 small white onion (diced)
1 tsp of red pepper flakes
1 tbsp of tomato paste
200 ml of cooking cream/heavy cream
Rigatoni pasta (approx 55g)
Freshly grated parmesan cheese (approx 25g)
About 2-3 tbsp Olive oil

Steps:

In a pot of salted boiling water, cook your pasta according to the instructions of the packaging.
- Tip: Steps on how to cook the perfect pasta here.
In a pan on medium heat, add olive oil and fry the sausage cubes until crispy and cooked through, about 3-5 mins. Remove the cooked sausage from the pan and set aside.
To the same pan, add more olive oil, garlic and onions and sauté everything for 3-5 mins until the onions soften.
Add red pepper flakes and tomato paste, and fry it in with the onions and garlic for about a min. Drizzle more olive oil to let the red pepper flakes bloom in the olive oil.
- Tip: If the tomato paste is too thick, add a splash of pasta water to loosen the tomato paste.
Add cooking cream and the cooked sausages to the pan, and turn the heat down to low. Mix everything together to create a thick creamy sauce. Cover the pan with a lid and let the sauce simmer while the pasta finishes cooking.
Once the pasta is done cooking, immediately transfer the cooked pasta to the pan. Mix the rigatoni pasta thoroughly with the sauce to allow the sauce to coat all sides of the pasta. Add a few additional scoops of pasta water to the sauce, which helps to create a thicker sauce and binds the sauce to the pasta.
Once you reach a nice consistency of thick & creamy sauce, turn off the heat and mix in freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Garnish with more grated parmesan cheese and enjoy!