Gochujang Vodka Sauce
This spicy creamy pasta uses gochujang instead of tomato to create a fun twist on vodka sauce! Beautifully creamy pink vodka sauce is one of the best pasta coatings out there and this gochujang twist really amps up the flavor and adds a great heat! I love pairing spicy ingredients with creamy ingredients because it helps calm down the heat and you can really enjoy the flavor of the gochujang.
The inspiration for this recipe
I am always looking for ways to eat gochujang with pasta or noodles. A long time ago I made this gochujang noodle dish one night when I needed something to eat and just pulled together some random things I had around the house. I was hooked! I was trying to think of a new gochujang pasta dish and I kept thinking I wanted to add a lot of cream to it. Finally I realized I was basically making vodka sauce with gochujang so I leaned into it!
Start the gochujang vodka sauce
Add some sausage and onion to the pan with plenty of olive oil. I almost kept this vegetarian but in the end I added a little bit of sausage. Just a little! The sausage was so nice – the savory flavor helped balance everything. Just don’t add too much! It needs to be a background player
Let the sausage and onion brown a bit around the edges and then add the gochujang and some sliced garlic. After that you add in the vodka, then the cream. Look how beautiful it looks as the cream swirls into the deep red gochujang vodka sauce.
Next add some basil and now it’s time for the pasta!
Boil the pasta
Choose a fun noodle for this one! I was almost going to do mafalde but I did a quick poll of my instagram followers and they chose this super cute fusilli bucati. I think it was the right choice.
Make sure the pasta isn’t quite cooked all the way. Strain it from the water and add it directly to the gochujang vodka sauce. Add some of the pasta cooking liquid too, and parmesan cheese! Let it cook in the pan the rest of the way with the sauce. The sauce will also thicken up a little at this stage. So good!
Serving the Gochujang Vodka Sauce
Pile up the gochujang vodka sauce pasta into a bowl and top with some basil and spicy thai chilis. This was incredible. For me, this is the very definition of comfort food.
So creamy and spicy! Just look at how creamy it is below!
Twists on this dish
I used a medium spicy gochujang for this vodka sauce. It was hot but in my opinion perfectly balanced with the cream. The sliced peppers on top took it just over the edge. You could get a more mild gochujang, and you could skip the garnish peppers if you want this to be a bit more approachable or if you have heat averse people in your house.
I mentioned I used a fusilli bucati corti. Any noodle that will hold sauce is great for this. I think a short cut of pasta would be better than a long noodle but honestly most pastas would work here.
If you are looking for a classic vodka sauce, check out this recipe.
For more great spicy Asian-Italian pasta mash-ups, check out my pepperoni kimchi pasta salad, this mapo tofu inspired Sichuan bolognese, and this lamb bulgo-gnese!
Gochujang Vodka Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 pound spicy italian sausage
- 1/3 cup diced onion
- 1/4 cup gochujang chili paste
- 3 cloves garlic sliced thin
- 1/4 cup vodka
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 8 oz pasta
- 10 basil leaves torn – plus more for garnish
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 3 red thai chilis sliced thin
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a frying pan over medium heat. Add in the sausage and onion and cook about 10 minutes to brown on the edges and cook through. Smash the sausage as it cooks so that it breaks up into very small bits.
- Add in the gochujang and garlic and stir to combine. Cook for 3 minutes stirring often until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add in the vodka and stir to combine. Cook 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in the cream until combined. Add the basil leaves.
- Bring a heavily salted pot of water to a boil and add in the pasta. Cook about 3 minutes less than the package says until it still has the last bit of crunch in the center.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta cooking liquid. Strain the pasta and add it directly to the pan with the sauce. Add in the pasta water and the parmesan cheese and stir to combine.
- Turn heat to low and bring to a simmer. Cook about 3 minutes until it thickens slightly and the pasta becomes al dente
- Serve and top with more basil and the sliced chilis
This is delicious! I made it last night. Yum!
I’ve followed for awhile, but this is the first recipe I’ve made. It just spoke to me. I doubled the recipe, but not the oil. I added about 3 Tbls of good tomato paste, bc I was a little light on gochujang. I pussed out and use mild Italian and skipped the chilies on top. I served over gemelli. This dish is a gem!
Thanks for sharing! I’m glad you enjoyed it so much!
Tastes great, quite pricey and calorific but worth it on occasion!