Bloody Mary rigatoni

There are some pastas born entirely out of a combination of profound hunger and happy accident. This is one such pasta. A craving for something deeply, lip-smackingly savoury with a bit of a kick; tomato-y but not especially saucy; a little creamy without being heavy; a pasta dish that sits somewhere between sexy and ordinary. Sometimes when I’m really hungry, I find I go into a kind of trance while I cook, picking up bottles and jars without much of a game plan, shaking in a bit of this, a bit of that, tasting as I go. It’s at times like these that the most delicious dinners seem to emerge. This is one of them. I call her Bloody. Mary. Rigatoni.

She follows a similar set of principles to the New York/Italian classic pasta alla vodka, but with a few notable additions: celery seeds, a healthy dash of Worcestershire sauce and as much hot sauce as you can take. At her core she’s just a pretty simple tomato sauce, the kind you’ve made a thousand times. But then she has the audacity to go and have all the umami, peppery thwack of a really good, hangover-beating Bloody Mary. She’s a happy accident of a dinner that quickly became a fail-safe that I’ve returned to again and again.

I favour a fruity hot sauce for this, so using something like a bottle of Frank’s would be perfect. You could, of course, use fresh or dried chillies, though I find the slightly sweet, vinegary tang of a bottled chilli sauce adds something. I use rigatoni because it will really catch the sauce. Serve the pasta under a cloud of parmesan and black pepper.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 1 celery stick, very finely chopped
• 100g rigatoni
• 1 large garlic clove, grated
• ½ tsp celery seeds (or 1 tsp celery salt and reduce the flaky salt)
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp hot sauce
• a good few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp vodka or gin
• ½ lemon, juiced
• 50ml double cream
• flaky salt
• grated parmesan and ground black pepper, to serve

METHOD

1. Put the butter and olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan over a low-medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the onion and celery and a good pinch of salt. Cover the pan with the lid and cook the onion and celery for 15 minutes, or until both have turned properly soft.
2. Meanwhile, put the pasta on. Cook the rigatoni in plenty of well-salted boiling water, until al dente. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of cooking water when you come to drain it.
3. Add the garlic and celery seeds (or celery salt) to the onion and celery and cook, without the lid, for 1 minute. Turn the heat up a little and add the tomato puree, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, then add the vodka, lemon juice and a good pinch of salt. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring, until the sauce has come together and looks smooth and glossy.
4. Take the pan off the heat. Tip the pasta and the reserved cooking water into the pan with the sauce and add the cream. Put the pan back over a low heat and mix everything together, tossing it thoroughly to make sure the sauce is clinging to the pasta. Serve with plenty of parmesan and black pepper.

Serves 1

This is an edited extract from The Art of Friday Night Dinner by Eleanor Steafel, published by Bloomsbury, RRP $52.00 hardback. Photography: Sophie Davidson. Buy now