There’s just something about vodka sauce that’s undeniably irresistible, with that creamy tomato sauce supported by aromatics like garlic, shallots, or onions to coat your chosen pasta shape with lip smacking goodness. And when it comes to vodka sauce, it seems to be consensus that Carbone’s spicy rigatoni vodka is king. After all, people (myself included) are willing to shell out upwards of $30 for a small portion of their famous pasta (though that price does bake in the unmatchable experience of actually dining at the excellent restaurant).
With so many of us stuck at home these days, it’s only natural to seek out comforting dishes like Carbone’s spicy rigatoni vodka, but right now the only people with ability to get the real deal from the restaurant are those in New York (by ordering delivery through Caviar or dining outdoors) or in Hong Kong (as we’re lucky to still be able to dine in at the restaurant itself).
For everyone else, here’s a recipe for it is based on how they make it in Carbone Hong Kong’s kitchen. It’s based on a version in the cookbook Flavours of Hong Kong tells the stories of Hong Kong’s best restaurants and sources recipes directly from their chefs. I adapted the recipe because the one written in the book is very vague. There are no explanations for how long to cook things or at what temperatures (that way the kitchen can still keep SOME secrets), so I added all of that in based on my knowledge of cooking other sauces.
The true KEY to making that smooth, tangy, luscious spicy vodka sauce with those delicious bites of melted onions and chunky tomatoes just like Carbone’s is ingredients. Calabrian chili paste will give you the unique heat and sweet yet acidic pepper taste that’s unique to Carbone’s vodka sauce. It’s available online, or try local gourmet markets (my Hong Kong followers can visit Pantry Centrale or some City Super locations to buy the version pictured below). If you can’t find it, you can try to use a blend of roasted red peppers and chili flakes, but it simply won’t taste the same as Carbone’s. Different brands of Calabrian chili paste may be saltier (mine was quite salty), so my recipe keeps the salt on the lower end so you can always add more salt to taste.
Instead of tomato paste like a typical vodka sauce, using San Marzano tomatoes gives you that strong tomato taste with some sweetness, as well as the chunks of juicy tomato that are found in the restaurant dish. Finally, onions melted with butter and water creates a sweet and savory onion soubise that brings Carbone’s version of vodka sauce to the next level. All of these combine to create a dish that you won’t believe you made yourself since it will taste JUST LIKE the real deal! You can even splurge on the same plates and serving platters used at Carbone to bring the restaurant right into your home. Give it a try and tag me so I can see how you like it!
Ready to recreate another restaurant dish? Try making Bucatini all’Amatriciana just like they serve at another NYC favorite, Emilio’s Ballato.
Carbone Spicy Rigatoni Vodka
Ingredients
For the onion soubise:
- 4 tbsp. unsalted butter or vegan butter
- 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup water
- Salt
For the spicy rigatoni vodka:
- 28 oz. whole San Marzano tomatoes, hand crushed (drain the liquid for a thicker sauce before crushing)
- 1.5 tbsp. salt (more to taste)
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp. Calabrian chili paste (more to taste)
- 3 tbsp. vodka
- 3 tbsp. unsalted butter or vegan butter
- 1/2 – 1 cup heavy cream** (substitute with oat milk like OATSIDE for plant-based)
- 1 lb. rigatoni or pipette
Instructions
- Make the onion soubise: heat the butter over low heat in a saucepan, then add the onions and water and season with a pinch of salt. Cook for ~15 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally, to melt the onions – you want them soft and translucent but you do not want to add any color or browning to them. Optional: blend the onions if you prefer a smoother sauce.
- While the onions are cooking, combine the tomatoes, salt, sugar, olive oil, Calabrian chili paste, vodka, butter, and cream (or oat milk) in a large skillet, heat to a boil then lower to medium-low heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- While the sauce is simmering, boil pasta in a pot of well-salted water and cook the pasta until al dente according to package directions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, drain pasta and set aside.
- Add the onion soubise to the sauce and stir until well combined, taste and add more salt, chili paste or cream as desired.
- Add the cooked pasta and 2 tbsp of pasta water, tossing to coat and if needed, adding more pasta water 2 tbsp at a time to achieve desired sauce consistency.
- Serve in warm bowls and enjoy!
Notes
*I’ve gotten some feedback that some people find it’s too much onions, or that the sauce ends up too wet for some folks. If you’re not the biggest fan of onions, then reduce the amount to start, or try adding in half the final onion soubise at the end of cooking and adding more to taste. I’d also suggest starting with a 1/2 cup of cream, and you can add more cream after the sauce is done simmering to adjust to your own preference
If you leave a rating, please let me know in the comments what you liked/didn’t like about the dish so I can make improvements.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see the final product. Tag your stories and posts on Instagram with #IndulgentRecipes and @IndulgentEats so I can see them!
You have butter listed on here twice… Which one is it? 4tbsb or 3 tbsb?
The first is for the onion soubise and second is to simmer in the sauce! I updated the recipe so this is clearer
Thanks for sharing! What brand of pasta did you use in this recipe? Regular store bought Rigatoni, even De Cecco, looks nothing like what’s served up in Carbone
The pipette pasta that looks more similar to Carbone is linked in the recipe and post
This looks tempting. Such a great use of Vodka.
Delicious, but a little too wet. Too much cream to tomato ratio.
The cream and tomatoes should simmer and thicken, but you can definitely adjust to add less cream next time! Glad you enjoyed regardless
Can I put this in a container and freeze it? How long is it good for and is there a special freezing process for pasta sauce?
Hi you can freeze it but make sure not to add the cream to the sauce until when you’re reheating it! Hope that helps
The Carbone pasta is super wet! This is spot on 🙂
Such An amazing recipe would love to try this one surely.
Salted or unsalted butter ?
Unsalted! I’ll make that update
I made this two nights after having the actual Carbone restaurant dish (live in NYC). Very similar. I did a couple tweets that I would change to make perfect. I used two onions and one garlic clove sliced. I would cut to one onion to be restaurant amount, maybe my onion was slightly bigger than yours, maybe you should give measurements in oz or cups. Also two cups of cream is way too much. Other recipes have 1/2 cup for two cans of tomatoes. I put in one cup but would cut to 1/2 cup because it was super light in color compared to restaurant version. I also cooked it longer to let flavors blend. I would not cut the butter or sugar, they make it authentic. I did everything else exactly as you did. Used Amore chili pepper paste from Zabars, looks like a tomato purée tube. Delicious and perfect. Use high quality pasta, you’ll taste the difference. Very happy with this recipe.
Glad to hear you enjoyed! So all of the proportions of ingredients are actually from the recipe from the restaurant (so yes, they actually use 2 cups of cream and all those onions for a full pound of pasta!). It’s definitely open to your own modifications though so I’m glad this was a base for you to find a version that works for you. It’s really so delicious!
This dish was fabulous and I moved it to our company dish list.! I started with about 1 cup cream, then added more to desired consistency and taste, and topped the dish with parmesan and chopped fresh basil. Just stunning! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Love the additions! So happy to hear you loved it
I have never been to Carbone’s but this is the best pasta that I’ve ever tasted in my life thus far. It beats any carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, bolognese etc by miles! This recipe is so good, it should be illegal. My hips are mad that I cooked this, but Pandora’s box has been opened and there’s no going back. Thank you for sharing this through these tough times.
Wow thanks for the kind words! So happy to hear that, I love it so much too!
Wow thank you for the amazing feedback! I’m so happy to hear you loved it
Seriously delicious….my very picky boyfriend says its his favorite pasta he’s ever had, the same as carbone’s.
Yess I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like this pasta!
We fell in love with this dish when we had it in Carbone on a trip to New York. We were so excited when we saw the perfect recipe for it. We had it last week and it was amazing! We absolutely loved it. We wanted to make fresh pasta with it so we prepped our own garganelli. It was fab 😊
So happy to hear you loved it!
Hi , if I don’t have access to chilli paste , can I make the same recipe w chilli flakes ? Or chilli powder ?
Yes you can use that for heat, but it won’t have the same flavor as the Calabrian chili paste
[…] wine vinegar, and Calabrian chili paste (an incredible Italian pepper paste that I borrowed from my Carbone spicy rigatoni vodka recipe). The cherry tomatoes get tossed in olive oil and spices before roasting in the air fryer […]
What is a brown onion? I made it and it was good, but very oniony. I had never heard of a brown onion, so used my best guess.
It’s the same as a yellow onion! Yes the restaurant uses quite a lot of onion but it cooks down into a subtlety sweet soubise that I really enjoyed. Def feel free to cut it down if you decide to make it again!
Spot on! Exactly like the restaurant (my husband says its actually better). Thank you for sharing this!
Omg what a great compliment! But it’s def better when you can make a giant bowl of it & season to your personal taste vs the small serving at a restaurant 😅
Absolutely loved this! Had the pleasure of tasting this dish on a recent trip to Carbones in NYC! Bringing back memories of my holiday! Loved the restaurant and love this pasta! Will be making it again thanks for sharing!
The flavor is absolutely fabulous! I ordered the Calabrien Chili Paste and am very glad I did; I can think of many other uses for it👍 The only change I might make is less cream; the end result was a bit soupy for us. But that is a very minor quibble, lol. I have had this dish at the restaurant and this is every-bit-as-tasty! Thanks so much!
I’m so happy to hear that! Yeah it seems a number of people are having ratios off with the cream, I’ve adjusted the recipe to suggest starting with less to begin with.
And the Calabrian chili paste makes a great mayo for sandwiches if you check out my steak and egg sandwich recipe! I’ve also mixed it into honey with stellar results
https://indulgenteats.com/2020/08/17/steak-and-egg-sandwich-calabrian-chili-mayo-caramelized-onion-garlic-bread/
I have made this at least 4 times since discovering this… easy to make and spectacular for your taste buds!
Thanks for sharing this gem with the rest of us!
So happy to hear that you love it!!
Can you freeze this sauce?
Yes, but freeze it before you add the cream! Then when you’re reheating the sauce after you’ve defrosted it, you can add the cream and simmer before you toss in your cooked pasta.
[…] pasta sauce might have a bit of sugar to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes (like in my Carbone spicy rigatoni vodka sauce), Filipino spaghetti takes it up a notch by adding extra sugar so that the sauce has a distinct […]
Made this tonight it tasted good: would make it again and continue tweaking. Made some modifications:
1.5 onions- blended (that was too much onion so we added 2cups crushed tomatoes)
1/4cup of red wine instead of sugar
Blended the tomatoes and drained so the sauce was smooth
3 cloves of garlic in the onion soubise
No added salt; we don’t usually cook with salt
1/2cup cream, but would use a little bit more
Absolutely love this recipe. I’ve made it three times and folks have gone crazy for it. I wanted to ask some clarifying questions.
1) The instructions state to add the cream to the sauce and let it simmer, but the video seems to show the cream (and onions) are added after the simmering, and right before the pasta is added. When should the cream be added? Does it matter?
2) When adding the onions, I assume the water/butter is not added? Should the sauce simmer with the onions or should the onions be added at the last step right before the pasta?
3) In your video, did you drain the liquid of the tomatoes or did you use it? I’m hoping the thickness of my sauce to match the video, and I’m wondering if I should add more pasta water or I should drain some of the tomato sauce.
Yay I’m so glad you love it! Here’s some clarification:
1) I actually made this a couple times after filming that video and found that the sauce consistency is better when you simmer the cream with the sauce, hence why the directions instruct to do it that way.
2) The onions initially get cooked with the butter and water to make the onion soubise as directed in step 1. Then the cooked onion soubise is added to the sauce before the pasta
3) I used the liquid to add more tomato flavor. Pasta water is always the magic ingredient for adjusting the sauce consistency!
So amazing. Made for four using only 2 onions and a bit more chili paste. Thank you, thank you!
So happy to hear that! Yes I usually add more chili paste too, just love that spice!
[…] be simpler; All it takes is flour, eggs, and some salt. For the sauce, we decided to make Carbone’s famous spicy rigatoni sauce (another TikTok trend), and with our accumulated knowledge from watching TikToks at 4 am and […]
This was very good. I’ve never eaten at the restaurant so I can’t compare it to that, but the flavors were very good. We doubled the Calabrian chili paste, so 4 tbsp, used two onions, and we did puree them, and used 1/2 cup of cream. I’ll definitely make this again!
So happy to hear! I usually also double the chili paste too, love that heat
Wow this was delicious. Thank you! I made dairy-free alternatives and it all worked out perfectly. Earth Balance for butter and 1 cup of coconut cream for the heavy cream
Oh wow I need to try making a dairy free version and see how it compares! So glad you enjoyed
Is this the same recipe that Parm uses for their spicy rotini pasta?
Hi it’s pretty similar! I haven’t had the spicy rotini in years so I can’t quite breakdown the differences
Hi this is perfect, thanks for sharing. And most importantly, what little blue dish are you using? Great idea for a pasta bowl!
Thanks, it’s actually a baking dish (I think for pie) that I found at a local ceramics shop!
Hi, where did you get your serving bowl? Love the color!
Thanks, it’s actually a baking dish (I think for pie) that I found at a local ceramics shop!
I make this constantly and my entire family is so obsessed! So easy and always hits the spot every single time. I never leave comments or reviews on recipes but we’ve made this one so many times now and love it so much I said it was worth it to leave one.
Yay that makes me so happy!
[…] web and Instagram. Carbone’s spicy rigatoni vodka is a bit of a viral sensation, with recipes like this one attempting to recreate its creamy tomatoey depth. I’ve taken inspiration from a few different […]
This is absolutely delicious. Thanks.
[…] you are a novice cook and looking to impress friends or family, may I suggest you make this pasta and vodka sauce recipe. It’s incredibly rich (you can skip the onions and it’ll be just as good), […]
Thanks so much!. This is an excellent recipe, my wife & I loved it.
This is literally the best pasta I’ve ever made! My friend who tried it says it’s better than Carbone’s.
Thank you so much!! 🤩
Hi this looks amazing. If I want to make enough for 6 people can I just double everything? Will it come out the same? Any tips welcome!
Yes should be fine to double!
Hi I was wondering where I can find Calabrian chilli paste in Hk becuase that Pantry centrale link don’t work?
Thanks!
Just look up pantry centrale on google maps! It’s located in Sai Ying Pun. The city super in Causeway Bay sometimes has it too
I wanted to make this tonight but am confused whether I should be looking for Calabrian Chili paste or crushed/chopped peppers that I then need to some how make into a paste. Any help would be great!
Crushed Calabrian chilis are fine! I’ve linked them on Amazon in the recipe
Just wanted to share that my husband found this recipe sometime during the pandemic in 2020 and we made it as a group zoom activity with 8 of his coworkers. Since then, it’s become an absolute staple in all of our households! We make it monthly – some of his coworkers make it weekly. Thank you for such a fantastic recipe!!! I also thought that it couldn’t be frozen due to the cream (thinking the cream would separate?) but we’ve frozen it and have warmed it up for dinner with no issues! 5 stars from each of us!! We’ve also used the sauce to top chicken parmigiana, make shells, and even pizza. It’s become my husband’s signature dish and we are huge fans! As a former NYer – thank you for this taste of home. ❤️
Ahh this makes me so happy to hear!! Thank you so much for the feedback – I’m so glad I could bring some delicious food to your dinner table on a regular basis ❤️
I made this last night and my family really enjoyed it. I made a few tweaks based on an interview I found with one of the Carbone owners. He didn’t disclose the exact recipe, but he did say to replicate the sauce a few of the ingredients are white onions, garlic and herbs. So, I subbed in one white onion as many people said two onions were too much. Also added 2 garlic cloves to the soubise, and added some basil to the sauce. Additionally, based on several of the prior comments, I only added 1/2 cup of heavy cream and that seemed to work perfectly. My wife was asking for a protein component, so I sautéed a pound of jumbo shrimp in EVOO and garlic, and then added it at the very end. My only issue is that the sauce was too thin and I had let it cook quite a while.
This recipe was truly the best pasta dish I’ve ever made. I cooked the soubise for longer than called for. After adding the onion soubise to the sauce, I puréed for a smoother texture. I also only added about 3/4 tsp of salt to the sauce and used a smaller amount of the Calabrian chili paste. I cannot wait to make it again for some other family members. Thanks for the great recipe!
We made this recipe last night and it was a hit! My boyfriend totally loved it, we have enough for lunch today and are so glad we tried it. We thought the amount of salt was a bit much so we lowered it a tiny bit and it came out spectacular.
thank you for this recipe!!
Close … but this is not Carbone’s recipe … and I use to work there.
The onions are cooked for hours. If people are telling you it’s too much onion this is the reason. They have to be eviscerated. If you’ve ever had our spicy rigatoni you would know … there’s no trace of onion in the sauce. Eviscerated.
There is also, ready for this, no vodka. You are welcome. We used to call it “alla vodka” but no more … now its just Spicy Rig, but trust me, same recipe.
If you wanna know the real origin (and recipe) there is only one doc out about it … and its funny https://italyinbocca.com/disco-sauce
[…] for dinner. I swap between cooking a few of my favourite meals to attempting new recipes, like pasta with a spicy vodka sauce, spicy thai peanut hen and honey garlic shrimp stir fry (I additionally began making charcuterie […]
[…] friends for dinner. I switch between cooking some of my favorite meals to trying new recipes, like pasta with a spicy vodka sauce, spicy thai peanut chicken and honey garlic shrimp stir fry (I also started making charcuterie […]
I love your detailed information on the copycat recipe. I tried & the taste was really delicious, thank you!
Thanks for the recipe! It looked very similar to the carbone pasta. I only had a 28 oz can of fire roasted crushed tomatoes. I think it threw the taste off a bit. Next time, I would remove the sugar entirely and make sure to use white onions (I may have used sweet onions). It tasted too sweet for my family. We eat the real carbone pasta and don’t find it sweet.
Can I make the onion soubise a day ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate?
Thank you!
Absolutely! If it’s 1 day should be fine to just store in the fridge. The longer you cook the onions, the better!
This quite possibly might be the best pasta sauce I’ve ever made. I use only half a cup of cream and 1 tablespoon of salt and I blended everything in my Vitamix for a very creamy, smooth pasta sauce, Delicioso.
This was delicious, the amount of liquid was perfect too in my opinion. I know some others thought it was too much. One thing I think I will do next time is either chop my onions or puree them. But other than that, this was incredible. Very close to the original which is definitely favorite of all time!
Hi. Would you be able to swap out oat milk for either almond or cashew milk? Thanks!
I’ve never tried it but don’t see why it wouldn’t work! might just not be quite as creamy