This spicy vegan pasta alla vodka is the perfect simple dish for the fun and spicy people in your life. It features the bouncy and humble rigatoni in a spicy vodka sauce made with pantry staples like onions, garlic, and tomato paste.
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Memorable dinners don’t have to be hard to make. I turned 21 recently, so I made spicy vegan pasta alla vodka as a rite of passage. I often think about what I’m going to remember from right now when I’m older and cozy dinners and long conversations with my friends in our little home for the year definitely count.
This was one of those cases where it took longer to eat dinner than it took to make it. There are a lot of vodka pasta recipes out there, so I wasn’t planning on posting this on my blog. For once, I didn’t take any camera photos or think about styling😅 But then I felt like it would just be easier to keep my recipes in one place, so here we are.
How to Make this Spicy Vegan Pasta Alla Vodka
There are a million pasta alla vodka recipes out there so I’m not going to pretend like this is particularly special. But I did add a few twists so here they are:
Kashmiri lal
This is clearly a very untraditional place for it but kashmiri lal is an Indian red chili powder that intensifies the color the dish without adding a crazy amount of spice.
Coconut milk
I used full fat coconut milk instead of cream to make it vegan! This makes the sauce just as rich and creamy, but since coconut milk carries a sweetness of its own, I added more red chili flakes and kashmiri lal to overpower that.
Cherry tomatoes
They aren’t in season at the moment, but cherry tomatoes add to the tomato flavor and they’re so good when they blister mid-bite.
Do you have to use vodka?
This was my first time cooking with vodka, so I definitely don’t know much about this topic. From what I’e read, the alcohol content evaporates yet it still enhances the flavor of the sauce. Here’s what I found on the internet:
Does Vodka Sauce Really Need Vodka?
What Can You Substitute for Vodka? (tldr: apple cider, grape juice, lemon juice – with a shift in flavor that isn’t really vodka sauce anymore lol)
For serving
Please do not hesitate to serve with fresh herbs and garlic bread. I made @foodmymuse shallot miso garlic bread! It was incredible.
Other tips
Cooking the pasta al dente means cooking it until it’s almost cooked so the pieces don’t break up when combined with the warm sauce. And with plenty of salt to make sure the pasta has taste on its own!
Save your pasta water! This helps make the sauce more saucy. The starchiness of the water helps it adhere to the pasta.
Spicy Vegan Pasta Alla Vodka
Ingredients
- 8 oz. rigatoni, cooked al dente
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ red onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
- 6 oz. tomato paste
- 8-10 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- 1 tsp kashmiri lal *optional, but recommended for a little extra spice and color!
- 3 tbsp vodka
- ½ cup full-fat coconut milk
- basil and vegan mozzarella *optional for topping
Instructions
- Cook the pasta al dente according to package instructions. Save at least 1 cup of pasta water!
- Add olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they start to caramelize, so past the point where they start to look translucent!
- Add garlic and red chili flakes. Cook until the garlic starts to turn golden-brown. Add tomato paste and stir together as well as you can. Cook it down for about 5 minutes to get rid of the rawness of the tomato paste. Then add cherry tomatoes and stir for another few minutes. Add the vodka and let it reduce for a couple minutes. Then add coconut milk and mix well before adding ½ cup pasta water.
- Add salt (~ ¼ tsp, plus more to taste) and kashmiri lal, if using. Combine and stir together before adding another ¼-½ cup pasta water, as needed.
- Reduce heat to low and add the rigatoni. Combine gently before garnishing with basil and vegan mozzarella!
For more comforting pasta recipes, try out…
Herby Lemon Broccoli Spaghetti
[…] If you like a little bit of heat, adding extra spices to your vegan penne alla vodka is a great way to fire up the taste. In this recipe, Upbeet Anisha recommends mixing in chili flakes and Kashmiri lal with your regular ingredients, like tomatoes, onions, and garlic.Get the recipe […]
Thank you so much for the kind words, Karen! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Anisha- I heard about your recipes from my daughter. I am so glad I found this site. Thanks for a fantastic recipe! The flavors were great and the fresh cherry tomatoes did make it extra special. I can’t wait to try more of these recipes. The beautiful photos make me want to try them all!