If you are an avid tiktok scroller - like me - you are bound to have seen the viral Gigi Hadid creamy vodka pasta circulating on the app. This version of the viral Gigi Hadid pasta has the right balance of smokiness, spice and luxurious creaminess, making for a perfect pasta dish. The best part is, this pasta comes together in under 20 minutes, and actually requires no alcohol!
While this pasta is perfect all on its own, homemade garlic parmesan rolls, air fryer garlic toast, or onion and olive focaccia are the perfect way to mop up this delicious creamy sauce!
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👩🏽🍳 Why This Recipe Works
- A great way to use pantry staples: This sauce does not require any fancy ingredients - all you need are a few simple pantry staples to come together!
- A quick and easy meal: Pasta in general is a simple and easy meal to bring together. This recipe is no different, coming together in 20 minutes and bringing loads of flavor!
- Easy to customize: This pasta recipe is easy to customize by omitting the meat, alcohol and/or increasing the spice level to your taste.
🥘 Ingredient notes
- Rigatoni pasta: Rigatoni pasta is my pasta of choice for this recipe, as the shape and ridges are perfect for holding in lots of flavorful sauce. Rigatoni has a little bit more texture to it than traditional penne.
- Thick cut bacon: Thick-cut bacon works well for this recipe, as it still maintains a meaty texture after the fat is rendered out. Unlike other proteins like pancetta, bacon adds a nice smokey flavor to the sauce, too!
- Heavy whipping cream: I recommend using heavy cream for this sauce, as the fat content adds a silky luxurious texture that you will not get from using half and half, or milk. Heavy cream tends to have 35% fat content, as opposed to 10% in half and half cream.
A full list of ingredients with measurements is located on the recipe card, below.
📖 Substitutions
- Rigatoni pasta: If you do not have rigatoni pasta on hand, you can substitute any short tube pasta such as penne, ziti, or even farfalle or fusilli. These are all great options that will hold onto the sauce.
- Thick-cut bacon: Pancetta or guanciale are delicious cured meat options that will work in place of bacon.
- Heavy cream: A dollop of cream cheese or mascarpone cheese will add the same level of creaminess that heavy cream adds to this pasta sauce.
- Red onion: A regular yellow onion or sweet onion can easily substitute red onions in this recipe.
🔪 Variations
- Extra veggies: Add cherry or grape tomatoes and some baby spinach to the pasta sauce, for a couple of extra servings of vegetables.
- Meat lovers: Brown some hot or sweet Italian sausage with the bacon, for a meat lovers twist.
- Classic vodka: Deglaze the pan with some good quality vodka before adding your cream to the sauce, for a classic vodka sauce recipe.
- Vegetarian: Leave out the meat altogether, for a vegetarian friendly pasta dish.
⏲️ Step-by-step Instructions
Prep Work Before Cooking
- Collecting all your ingredients: This will make cooking so much easier. Gather all the spices you will need, and keep them nearby.
- Prep the vegetables: Finely dice the onions, and mince the garlic.
- Slice the bacon: Slice the bacon into lardons, or matchstick slices.
- Boil water: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Liberally salt the water once the water is boiling.
Boil the rigatoni pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta once cooked, and set aside.
Add the bacon lardons to a cold large skillet. Turn the heat to medium, and let the bacon fat render out. Once the bacon is almost completely crisp, drain off 90% of the bacon fat, and add the onions and garlic. Sweat the onions and garlic until translucent. [photo 1]
Once the onions have softened, add the tomato paste and spices to the skillet. Mix the tomato paste into the onions and bacon, and let the tomato paste cook through for 2 minutes. You will want the tomato paste to let some of its oils out to cook out the raw tomato flavor. [photos 2 &3]
Turn the heat to low, and add the heavy cream to the skillet. Combine the sauce together, and add half of the pasta cooking water to loosen the consistency. [photo 4]
Add the pasta to the skillet, and toss. Add the remaining pasta water while tossing the pasta with the sauce, and serve.
💭 Expert Tips
- To cut the bacon easily: Cut the bacon while it is still cold out of the fridge. This will make cutting the lardons (matchsticks) much easier, and the fat will stay solid!
- Do not rush the tomato paste: Give the tomato paste enough time to cook through. This will give your sauce a good depth of flavor, without tasting like metallic, raw tomatoes.
🍽 Make Ahead & Storage
- This pasta can be made 1-2 days in advance, and stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Leftover pasta will also keep well for up to 2 days in the fridge.
- Reheat leftover pasta in a skillet or in the microwave.
- If the sauce has tightened up, add some additional cream or a touch of water to loosen things up.
⭐ Recipe FAQs
While vodka sauce and pasta was not invented by Gigi Hadid, she gave it a popular resurgence on social media, especially TikTok, by sharing her spin on the pasta recipe. People recreating the dish began referring to it as Gigi Hadid pasta, and the name stuck!
Technically, you can use tomato sauce in place of tomato paste. Tomato paste has a much more concentrated and intense tomato flavor which is ideal for a simple sauce like this one. Tomato sauce is thinner in consistency, and will make the sauce a little bit less luscious and luxurious.
I do not recommend freezing this pasta, due to the high cream content in the sauce. Because this sauce comes together so quickly, it is best enjoyed fresh!
If you love restaurant-style dinners without the wait, this recipe is part of my collection of weeknight dinner ideas made with simple ingredients and ready in 30 minutes or less
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Gigi Hadid Creamy Vodka Pasta {No Vodka!}
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb Rigatoni pasta
- 6 slices Thick-cut bacon - lardons
- 1 Red onion - finely diced
- 4 cloves Garlic - minced
- ⅓ cup Tomato paste
- ½ tablespoon Italian seasoning blend
- ½ tablespoon Red chilli flakes - or less to taste
- ½ cup Heavy cream
- 1 cup Pasta water - divided
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water liberally once the water is rapidly boiling.
- Boil the rigatoni pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta once cooked, and set aside.1 lb Rigatoni pasta
- Add the bacon lardons to a cold large skillet. Turn the heat to medium, and let the bacon fat render out. Once the bacon is almost completely crisp, drain off 90% of the bacon fat, and add the onions and garlic. Sweat the onions and garlic until translucent.6 slices Thick-cut bacon, 1 Red onion, 4 cloves Garlic
- Once the onions have softened, add the tomato paste and spices to the skillet. Mix the tomato paste into the onions and bacon, and let the tomato paste cook through for 2 minutes until the oils start to release.⅓ cup Tomato paste, ½ tablespoon Italian seasoning blend, ½ tablespoon Red chilli flakes
- Turn the heat to low, and add the heavy cream to the skillet. Combine the sauce together, and add half of the pasta cooking water to loosen the consistency.½ cup Heavy cream, 1 cup Pasta water
- Add the pasta to the skillet, and toss. Add the remaining pasta water while tossing the pasta with the sauce, and serve.1 cup Pasta water
✱Recipe Notes
- To cut the bacon easily: Cut the bacon while it is still cold out of the fridge. This will make cutting the lardons (matchsticks) much easier, and the fat will stay solid!
- Do not rush the tomato paste: Give the tomato paste enough time to cook through. This will give your sauce a good depth of flavor, without tasting like metallic, raw tomatoes.
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