Someone called @birkbites posted this that she'd got from Gigi Hadid's instagram story and it caught my eye because of its simplicity and I love a quick pasta sauce. Having made a version though I think it could be great on so much more than pasta. I used some of my confit shallots which gave the base more intensity but you could use raw, diced shallot or onion instead. Anyway it's flippin epic if you love a creamy, spicy, quick pasta sauce, which I do!
For 2:
4-5 halves of confit shallot, or 1 large raw shallot finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp tomato puree
A splosh of vodka (about 2tbsp)
150ml double cream
1/2 - 1tsp aleppo chilli flakes, depending how spicy you want it
200g pasta
20g butter
herbs, parmesan and or crispy breadcrumbs to top
Roughly chop the confit shallots and scrape into a frying pan along with the oil that will still be clinging to them or your chopping board if you've used straight from the fridge. If they are room temp then add a couple of tablespoons of the confit oil to the pan too. Add the crushed garlic and a pinch of salt and cook over a medium heat for a couple of minutes to heat through and soften the garlic (or 5 minutes if using raw shallot).
Add the tomato puree and cook for another 3 minutes or so, stirring, to cook out the puree. Stir in the vodka, then add the cream and chilli flakes and cook gently for 5 minutes or so, tasting to check for heat, adding more chilli if you like.
Meanwhile cook the pasta in plenty of heavily salted boiling water until al dente, drain and reserve a cup of cooking water.
Add the butter and pasta to the pan and mix well to coat everything, loosening with a little cooking water until you have plenty of lovely sauce. Check the seasoning and add lots of fresh ground black pepper. Top with herbs and parmesan.