Spicy Rigatoni

with slow cooked onions

This is one of my favourite winter pasta dishes, balancing spicy and salty with the slightest touch of sweet. The onion takes a while to slow cook but this deepens the flavour of the cheery bright orange sauce and creates a meltingly soft texture.

The rest of it is low effort, as long as you can source the chilli pâté / paste, which I haven’t so far found in my local supermarkets. Instead, I used a chilli “pâté” from a local Italian delicatessen, which consists of a red paste of ground red chillis mixed with olive oil from Puglia. An Italian chilli paste will fulfil the same function. You can turn it into a vodka sauce if you feel like it by adding a tablespoon or two, it also works well without if you prefer.

Dried rigatoni is my favourite type of pasta for this dish, as it collects the sauce and retains a firm texture well.

Serves 2 as a large main course.

INGREDIENTS

  • 50g butter
  • 1 white onion, very finely chopped
  • 3 tsp caster sugar
  • salt and black pepper, to season
  • 50-100ml water
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp tomato purée
  • 1 tbsp chilli "pâté"
  • 1 tin tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)
  • 1 tbsp vodka (optional)
  • ½ tsp dried and crushed red chillies (add more / less to suit preference)
  • 100ml double cream
  • 250g dried rigatoni
  • Parmesan, to serve

METHOD

Heat the butter in a medium sized heavy bottomed saucepan. When it has melted, add the onion, one teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt and fry for 5 minutes. Add 50ml of the water, and turn the heat down to very low. Simmer the onion for 1 hour / 1 hour 15 mins, until it is meltingly soft. Stir regularly to ensure it doesn’t burn – you may need to add more water as you go but you don’t want there to be too much excess liquid when they are cooked so add it gradually.

Add the garlic for the last 2-3 minutes and fry it off. Add the tomato purée, the chilli “pâté”, the tinned tomatoes, the vodka (if you are using it) the remaining two teaspoons of sugar, and the dried chilli flakes and combine over a medium heat.

In the meantime, boil the water for your rigatoni. Cook the rigatoni until al dente. Drain the water but keep a little back to thin the sauce out if it needs it.

When you are nearly ready to serve, finally add the cream to the tomato sauce and stir through over a medium heat. Add a tablespoon or two of pasta water if it needs it, and then stir the rigatoni through. Season with salt and pepper, and top with a little Parmesan if you like.

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