When I am put in charge of making a dish, whether for an event or just for dinner, I will quickly begin to make the viral Gigi Hadid vodka pasta recipe, minus the vodka. 

I first came across the recipe in late 2020 on TikTok and decided to make it one day for lunch. I was stuck at home doing school virtually so what else was I going to do?

I was surprised by how easy the recipe was to make. This meal has become a comfort food for me, and since I have made it so many times, I have the process memorized. For the sake of clarity, I did reference the recipe to get the measurements correct, because I usually eyeball it.  

This recipe is also very quick to make and it only takes 20-30 minutes to make. This time may vary if you, like me, have a slow burner that takes forever to get water to boil. 

Firstly, gather your mise en place, also known as your ingredients. This way, you will know if you have everything before you are halfway through the recipe and can’t find a crucial component of the recipe (definitely not speaking from personal experience). 

For the version that doesn’t use vodka, you will need any type of pasta, tomato paste, heavy whipping cream, basil (fresh preferably), garlic, olive oil, butter, parmesan cheese (fresh or shredded), red pepper flakes, a red onion, pepper and salt (pink Himalayan salt is great). 

Before you start making the sauce, put approximately ¾ to one whole box of pasta into water to boil. You can use any type of pasta you like, but I usually use bowtie or macaroni. Make sure you don’t dump the water out before finishing the sauce, this will be important. 

In a big pan, saute your finely chopped red onion and minced garlic in the olive oil. This will usually represent half an onion or a whole one if small. 

Next, put in roughly half a cup of tomato paste and one cup of heaving whipping cream. These numbers don’t have to be exact, but you will want to roughly have a 1-to-2 ratio of tomato paste to cream — this can vary depending on how concentrated you want your sauce.

Make sure you have your burner on low, so as to not burn the cream. Afterwards, you can take about half a cup of the boiling water from the pot into the sauce. This will supposedly enhance the flavor of the sauce (thank the Italians for that – it actually makes a difference).

After fully combining the water into the sauce, add one tablespoon of butter and your desired amount of basil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Once your sauce is complete and the noodles are done, dump the strained noodles into the pan with the sauce. 

When serving, you can garnish the dish with basil and as much parmesan cheese as you want. For me, this means a lot of parmesan. This can make upwards of four servings, but the recipe is really easy to adjust. It is not difficult to correct an error like if you were to add too much cream.

I think this is a simple recipe, but one that doesn’t lack in the flavor department. I have made this for several people and have only gotten compliments, so hopefully you will enjoy this dish as much as I do!

Moris can be reached at [email protected].