---
title: '5 Restaurant Quality Pasta Sauces in 15 Minutes'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=U4NZllj854o'
video_id: 'U4NZllj854o'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 1155
---

# 5 Restaurant Quality Pasta Sauces in 15 Minutes

> Source: [5 Restaurant Quality Pasta Sauces in 15 Minutes](https://youtube.com/watch?v=U4NZllj854o)

## Summary



## Transcript

Hey, what's up? In this video, I'm going
to show you five basic 15minute pasta
sauces that are super versatile and will
cover a pound of the pasta of your
choice. I'm also going to show you some
restaurant moves that you can use in the
home kitchen to bring these pasta sauces
to life in the final dish, especially
the last one. That sauce is really
insane. First up is vodka sauce. It's
creamy, it's rich, it's a touch spicy,
and I think it's really underrated by
home cooks. To make it, I'll drop a big
pot of water on the stove for my pasta.
Then I'll grab a heavy bottom pot with
at least four quarts of space and drop
it over medium heat. Once that's hot,
I'll add in a long squiggle of olive oil
or about 40 grams worth. Then 75 g of
minced shallots, 20 g of minced garlic,
and then a strong pinch of salt. I cut
the shallots into a bruno or a very very
small dice because I want them to melt
into the sauce instead of being
texturally significant. And if you don't
have shallots, of course, you can go for
red onions. Just make sure to cut them
really small like this. After a stir at
about 5 minutes of sweating over medium
heat, the shallot garlic is translucent
and softened. So, next I'll add in 30 to
40 grams of chopped calabrian chilies, 2
to three grams of chili flakes, and a
little bit more oil to keep things
sizzling properly. Next, I'll jump in,
stir to combine, and sweat the chilies
with the aromatics for about 2 minutes
or until the oil is perfumed with the
fruity heat of the Calabrians. If you
don't have Calabrians, sub in an extra
pinch or two of chili flake. 2 minutes
later, I'll add in one whole can of
tomato paste, which is about 170 gram.
Then I'll jump in and fry that in the
chili garlic oil over medium heat to
round off any sharp acidity, develop a
little bit more sweetness, and blunt any
canned tomato flavor. 2 minutes later,
the tomato paste has turned a little bit
rusty and everything is starting to
glaze up the bottom of the pot. At this
point, it's time to add in the namesake
of this dish, vodka. 100 g worth. If
vodka isn't morally aligned for you, you
can use water here. Just know that
you're going to be missing out on a
couple of percentage points of flavor.
By the way, if you're wondering, vodka
helps pull out extra flavor from the
tomatoes and aromatics that aren't
soluble in water, just alcohol. It also
adds just a little bit of bite that
makes the creamy sauce taste better
without making it taste like booze. 30
seconds later, the vodka is simmered off
and we're left with a flavorful paste.
So, I'll move on to add in 350 g of
heavy cream. Then, I'll stir that in and
gently bring this up to a simmer over
low heat because cream can pretty easily
grip the pan and scorch if you use
higher heat. Now I'll lazily slowly
bubble this sauce for about 5 minutes
while I drop one lb of fusili into water
that I've salted generously. I love
fusili for this dish because the creamy
sauce gets caught in these little
spiraly folds. And that gives you a high
sauce to pasta ratio. And when your
sauce tastes as good as this one, that's
a good thing. 1 minute before the pasta
is done cooking, I'm going to scoop out
about a cup's worth of pasta water in
case I need to thin this sauce out later
on. Sometimes I need it, sometimes I
don't. But it's a good thing to have
boiling hot water around to thin out
your pasta instead of lukewarm tap
water. At the 9-minute mark, I'm going
to take a little bite ski to test for
dness. And we're good. Just a hair past
al dente is what I personally prefer.
Back at the sauce, the final texture
should be what we call in restaurants
nape. That means the sauce clings to the
back of a spoon, but it leaves a nice
trail when you pass your finger through
it. To finish this dish, I'm going to
flip my drain fusili into the pot. Then
add in 75 g of butter and 50 to 75 g of
grated parmesan. Now I'll just stir that
in off heat to melt in the dairy. Once
melted, the sauce should be clinging to
each noodle, but not so clingy that it's
gloppy or sticky. The overall texture
should look smooth and velvety like
this. The final step for all pasta
dishes, of course, is to taste for
seasoning. And I think that tastes
great, but I still want just a little
bit more high-end from a small pinch of
salt. And this sat for a second, so it
tightened up a little bit too much. So
I'm going to grab some pasta water and
splash that in to bring things back to
being a little bit more saucy. To serve,
I'm going to pile this into a nice low
pasta bowl. Then top with a generous hit
of grated Parmesan cheese. And then a
little fresh cracked black pepper to
bring a different kind of heat than the
Calabrians or the chili flakes. And that
is a dreamy creamy vodka sauce that's
teed up for a variety of different pasta
shapes, not just fusili. Now, let's
taste it. M.
That is a freaking party food. It's
creamy. It's cravable. It's comforting.
And it's so freaking flavorful, guys.
The little folds in the fusili perfectly
hold this creamy tomato sauce. And then
the whole thing is tied together with
some parmesan cheese. It's It's so good.
I love it. I think more people should
make this dish at home. Up next is a
maximalist version of tomato sauce
called amatricana. At first glance, it
looks simple and maybe even a little bit
boring, but I assure you that it will
expand what you thought was possible
from a basic can of tomatoes. To make
it, I'll start with some kind of cured
pork product. Traditionally, that's
guanchchal, which is cured and dried
pork jaw. Guanchal is really fatty,
though, so cutting it is very hard if
it's not hard. So, to firm it up, I'm
going to throw it into the freezer for
about 15 minutes. Oh, and by the way, I
got this guanchchal at my local Italian
market. But if you can't find it,
panetta or bacon would be a fine sub.
Once the jowl is firmed up, I'm going to
cut it down into 1/2 in thick discs. As
you can see, it kind of looks like I'm
struggling a bit here because it's very
firm from the freezer, but I would much
rather have this pork be harder than
softer. Cutting room temperature
guanchal is very unpleasant and greasy.
Next, I'm going to cut my pork rounds
into strips, then turn 90 and cut into a
clean, small dice. Avoid large rustic
chunks here if you can because those
aren't going to evenly render and then
they'll kind of stand out as flabby
chewy bits in the final dish. In total,
I need about a half pound or 225 g of
small diced guanchal or some other kind
of fatty cured pork. From here, I'm
going to grab my heavy bottom pot yet
again and drop it on the stove next to
some boiling pasta water. Once up to
medium heat, I'll drop in my diced
guanch chal. Then add in a big splash of
water. This water is going to help
render the fat much faster and more
evenly. From here, I'm going to slowly
gently render the pork for about 10
minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so
to make sure that the meat isn't getting
too brown or crispy. All I want here is
to fully render out the flabbiness and
get a little development of flavor from
the pork frying in its own fat. At
around 10 minutes, the pot has started
to glaze up with pork drippings. And
there's a little bit of browning going
on. So to arrest that darkening of
flavor, I'm going to add in a splash of
water to deglaze. Then I'm going to
scrape that up. Man, this is looking
really good. Now the pork is fully
rendered and tender with zero flabiness.
Next, I'm going to move this pork over
to a bowl to hang for a sec while I cook
the tomato part of this sauce. Back over
medium heat, I'll add in 60 grams of
olive oil. Then 200 gram of small to
medium diced red onion, 20 grams of
minced garlic, and a strong three-finger
pinch of salt. Oo, I'll also add in a
little bit more water to loosen up the
remaining porkiness stuck on the pan.
From here, I'll just jump in and scrape
that up and sweat the onions and garlic
gently over medium low heat for about 5
to 10 minutes until things are nice and
soft. At that point, things will look
caramelized, but that's just the
meatiness from the pork coming up. Next,
I'll add in 20 g of finely chopped
calabrian chilies. Stir those in and
then fry off with the aromatics. Again,
if no
collabor chili flake, but you should
just get them. Whole Foods, Trader
Joe's, Italian markets, international
grocery stores, and Amazon all stock
them. They're delicious. Get them now.
Okay, chilies are sizzled and the oil is
looking really flavorful. So, from here,
I'll add in 25 g of tomato paste. Then,
stir in and fry for about 2 minutes or
until it's taken on a bit of a rusty
color. Tomato paste is like tomato
bouan. It increases the amount of tomato
flavor instantly and substantially. I
almost never make a tomato-based sauce
without it because it ups the perceived
tomatoiness of the sauce by at least
50%. Once the paste is fried off, I'll
add in 100 gram of dry white wine. I'll
stir that in to delaze the pot. Then
I'll reduce until the wine is fully
cooked off or until a sec, which is
French restaurant speak for until dry.
Once the alcohol is cooked off and the
wine has reduced until my spatula leaves
a little trail like this, I'll add in
one pureed can of nice tasting crushed
tomatoes. Brandwise, I like Bianco
DNapoli or Cento best. Then 1 grams of
oregano, 3 to 5 grams of sugar, and one
more pinch of salt to season the
tomatoes. From here, I'll stir and bring
up to a low simmer and cook for about 7
to 10 minutes while I drop one lb of
pasta into my pot. In my kitchen,
amatricana gets buatini. I love it
because it has this tube shape and that
brings a level of textural contrast and
springy bite that spaghetti just doesn't
have. Before the pasta is done cooking,
again, I'm going to reserve some pasta
water for adjusting sauce thickness.
Then I'll drain off the bukatine, throw
it into the sauce. Then to finish, I'll
throw in a splash of the reserved pasta
water and then 40 to 50 grams of grated
pecorino cheese. From here, I'll fold
together until the cheese is melted and
the pasta and sauce have unified into
one beautiful thing. Of course, before
serving, one last taste for salt. And I
think this needs a little bit more
sharpness from the pecorino and a tiny
pinch more salt. To serve, I'll swirl
into a bowl, then top with a couple of
chunks of rendered pork and a little bit
more tomato sauce. And then finally, a
hefty dose of grated pecorino cheese.
And that's amatricana, the queen tomato
sauce. For me, it possesses a depth and
delicacy of flavor that you just don't
get from a basic marinara or a spicy
arabiata. Bukatini is a beautiful
slurping noodle. And texturally, when
those two sides come together and get
squished in between your teeth, it's
really, really special. Flavor-wise, for
a simple tomato sauce, there is a lot
going on here. You've got the estestery
sweetness from the wine. You've got
onion, you've got garlic, you've got
fruity chilies, you've got pork flavor,
you've got just an overall beautiful,
robust meatiness. At the end of the day,
this is just tomato sauce, but honestly,
it's so good. Up next is a hybrid that
smashes up two legendary sauces into one
super sauce. But first, I'll thank Wild
Grain for sponsoring this vid. If you
haven't heard of them, Wild Grain is the
first bake from Frozen subscription box
for sourdough breads, pastries, and even
fresh pastas. When I was a professional
bread baker, I actually had a very
similar idea. But thank God, Wild Grain
beat me to it because there's no way
that I could have done it. And I'm glad
that it exists. It's extremely
convenient. Having baked tens of
thousands of loaves of bread myself, I
can say for sure that the product here
is really nice. And being able to have a
fresh baked loaf of sourdough in the
house without having to make it yourself
is a real treat. In fact, I baked off a
couple of wild grain loaves at my last
two dinner parties and everyone agreed
that it was delicious. But you can get
more than just sourdough from Wild
Grain. You can customize your box to
include whatever baked goods you want.
In my last box, I got a croissant loaf,
raspberry lemon biscuits, a crunchy
loaf, cherry pie bites, and rigetoni,
which is perfect for some of this
leftover vodka sauce that I have. So, to
check out Wild Grain, click the link in
my description to get 30 bucks off your
first box, plus free croissants for
life. Did you hear what I just said?
Free croissants for your entire life.
How do they do it? I don't know, but you
better click this and get the deal
before they change their minds. Up next
is a sauce I call Alfredo E Pepe. It's
everything you could possibly want in a
cheesy pasta sauce. To make it, I'll
drop 50 gram of butter into a warm pot
and melt it. Then I'll get a r going on
by adding in 20 g of allpurpose flour,
then whisking with a silicone whisk so I
don't scratch my duchie. Then I'll stir
this up until the flour is lumpless and
unified with the butter. From here, I'll
sizzle this on low heat for about 1
minute to cook off the raw flour taste.
Next, I'll add in 500 gram of half and
half while whisking to prevent lumps. I
like half and half for this sauce
because it's richer than milk, so the
sauce is a little bit creamier, but it's
lighter than heavy cream, so it doesn't
get too thick or gloppy. Half and half
gives you that silky cheesy finish
without overwhelming the other flavors.
Once this sauce is up to a low simmer,
you can see the flour has thickened
things up. So, from here, the heat's
going to get turned down to really low
or even off while I cook my pasta. Over
here, I'll add in one lb of fetuccini.
No, stop it, dude. It's not time to
become one of those guys that says
Italian words with an Italian accent.
But notice that while I'm adding it, I'm
spinning it and twirling it. That's
because fetuccini loves to piss me off
and stick together. So, I really go out
of my way in the first 2 to 3 minutes of
boiling to make sure that the individual
pieces of pasta are staying separated.
Back in the sauce, after about 5 minutes
of gentle simmering, things have
thickened and the stability is there to
hold cheeses in emulsion without
breaking. To finish, I'll kill the heat,
then add in 8 g of salt and 8 g of black
pepper. I prefer a coarser crack here
because powdery black pepper can make
the sauce kind of look like gray paint.
Next, in goes 75 grams of grated
pecorino cheese and 75 grams of grated
Parmesan cheese. For this sauce, it's
really important that you grate your own
cheese because pre-grated parmesan or
pecorinos are usually covered in
anti-caking agents which make them melt
weird. Once the cheeses are in, I'm
going to jump in with my whisk and stir
until things are melted. The residual
heat here should be more than enough to
melt it all together, but if yours isn't
getting there, add in a touch more heat
from the burner. Be careful though,
because excessive heat can seize up the
proteins in the cheese, which will make
it grainy. And after about 30 seconds,
I've got a rich, peppery, sharp cheese
sauce that is equal parts Alfredo and
Kacua Pepe. Once the pasta is just a
touch pastel dente, I'll strain it off,
then drop the fetachccin into the cheese
sauce. Also, right away, I'm going to
add in about a/2 cup of reserved pasta
water because fetuccini is super thirsty
and cheese sauces tend to thicken
quickly, so we need extra water. From
here, I'll toss to combine. Then give
the pot an aggressive little shimmy to
release more starch so things get
creamier and that much more silky.
Texturally, I would say air on the side
of being just a little bit thinner with
the sauce because it's going to thicken
and you don't want things to be overly
gloppy. To serve, I'm going to garnish
with a bunch more grated cheese. Then
give this about a dozen cranks of black
peppy to bring the heat and to sharpen
things up. Finally, I'll hit it with a
drizzle of olive oil to make it lean
even more towards
kacio. M. It's so silky and creamy, but
it's not overly heavy. You get sharpness
from the pecarino. You get some heat
from the black pepper, or like a lot of
heat from the black pepper. You get this
bright green fresh tasting olive oil
because we put that on top. And then the
round umami flavor from the parmesan
kind of ties everything together. It's
everything you want in a cheesy starchy
pasta. Up next is a green pasta sauce
called pesto. You've heard of that.
Today I'm going to show you how to make
a really good version of it. To start,
I'll put a 100 g of cubed parm into a
food processor. I don't like pre-graded
parm because it makes a pasty pesto. The
parmesan cubes break down into a coarse
texture that gives the sauce a lot of
textural interest and a lot more lively
parmesan flavor. After a quick 30-se
secondond pulse, when I stopped to take
a look, you can see that this looks
grally. That's exactly what I want. The
pieces look like Moroccan couscous or
like soil. Next, I'll add in 100 g of
untoasted pine nuts, 125 g of olive oil,
and 100 g of demmed fresh basil. Yes,
that is a ton of basil. It's basically
two of these $7 clamshells. But to make
a meaningful amount of pesto, you need a
lot of basil. And the results here are
going to be worth the investment of your
$14. Trust me. Also, no toasting on the
pine nuts because in my testing, the
flavor of the final pesto was basically
the same whether the pine nuts were
toasted or untoasted. The last thing in
is 5 g of salt. Then I'll pop on a lid
and spin for about 30 seconds or until
the nuts and basil are well broken down.
A quick note, don't over spin this
because you'll heat things up, which
will round off the freshness of the $14
worth of basil and it'll start to turn
things brown. And stop. After about 20
to 30 seconds, you can see that we've
got a super bright green pesto.
Everything is broken down in here, but
it's not broken down so much that it's
become a paste. It's still saucy. If
yours is looking a little bit too tight
at this point, you could drizzle in a
little bit more olive oil. To use this
pesto, I'm going to drop one pound of
spaghetti into a salty pot of boiling
water. Oh no, that's not how you do
that, bro. Next, I'll pour off the pasta
water after reserving a little bit.
Then, the pasta goes back into the pot.
And then, I'll drop in a ladle of pasta
water to keep things loose. Then, I'll
drop in all of my pesto. There we go.
From here, I'm going to whip things
around a little bit to get the pesto
incorporated and to get things sauced
up. The parmesan's going to start to
melt a little bit, and that's fine. You
don't want a full melt, but a little bit
will actually help the sauce cling to
the pasta. And there we go. Emerald
green pesto and spaghetti. M. You can
actually see how the parmesan and pine
nuts colluded to make things creamy. To
serve, I'm going to twirl and twist it
into a low bowl. Then top up with some
grated Parmesan and a few chopped pine
nuts to bring a bit of crunch to the top
couple of bites. I love this pesto for
pretty much all pasta shapes, but it's
also great for white pizza or topping
skin on fish like trout or salmon or
putting on a salad with arugula,
tomatoes, and fresh
mozzarella. The thing that I love about
this pesto in particular compared to
some of the other pestos that I've made
in the past is that this one is
extremely basil flavored. The pine nuts,
the parmesan, the olive oil, those taste
good and they elevate the entire dish.
But the first and last impression that
you get here is herbaceious sweet fresh
basil, which I love. The last pasta
sauce is the most decadent in this
video. Mushroom Marsala. To make it into
a medium heat Dutch oven, I'll add 125 g
of small diced onions, 20 g of minced
garlic, a strong pinch of salt. Then
I'll stir to get those things sweating.
Sweating is more of a mellow cooking
process than sautéing or stir frying.
With sweating, we want just enough heat
to cook the moisture out of the onions.
That moisture will then soften the
aromatics as we cook them, which will
keep browning at bay, which is what we
want. After 5 minutes, we've got a soft,
clear aromatic base with no
caramelization. So, next I'll add in 175
g of diced mushrooms and another little
pinch of salt. After about 5 minutes,
these mushrooms have sweat out their
liquid and they've softened a little
bit. So, next I'll add in 2 g of chopped
fresh thyme. Then, I'll stir that in and
continue to sweat things down for about
6 to 7 minutes over medium heat. I'll
call things good to go here. When the
mushrooms have shrunk by about half, the
onions are totally soft, and there's
just a little bit of browning going on.
From here, I'll add in 125 g of Marsala
wine and stir that in to delaze the
stuck mushroom fond and to cook off the
alcohol flavor. If alcohol is a no-go
for you, use 10 g of wirch, a touch of
sugar, and 100 g of beefto. Okay, once
the pan's scraped up and the marsala is
cooked down until sack, like this, I'll
add in 200 g of heavy cream, and a small
splash of water. Then bring the whole
thing up to a simmer and cook down for 5
minutes. If you're wondering why I'm
using cream over half and half, it's
because there's no cheese in the sauce,
so the extra fat in the cream is
actually welcome. Now, while that sauce
finishes cooking, I'm going to add in
one pound of frozen raviolis to my pasta
pot. Yes, I'm not ashamed to use
store-bought stuffed pastas, especially
ones from a nice Italian market. These
are only like $6 a pound, and they are
more than passable in terms of quality.
Okay, back at the sauce, you can see
that after a little bit of reduction, my
spoon leaves a lazy trail when I pass it
through. Again, we're looking for a nape
consistency here. This thickness is
going to grip the pastas beautifully.
And I'm also going to just add a little
bit more salt in. That's going to do the
trick before the pasta goes in. Okay,
these frozen pastas are made with fresh
pasta, which means that they cook really
quickly. So, after 4 minutes, I'm going
to lift them out, then drop them into my
finished Marsala sauce. From here, I'm
going to bring the sauce up to a very
bare simmer and stir things to get the
pasta bathed in the sauce. To serve, I'm
going to pile some raviolis into a bowl,
then shower with some parmesan. Then
just a little bit more mushrooms and
sauce on top. Now, let's taste
it. What? It's perfectly sweet from the
marsala. The mushrooms are earthy.
They're perfectly cooked. There's cheese
inside the pasta. And the whole thing is
coated in this satiny, beautiful cream
sauce. I love it. If you like this video
and you want some more meticulously
tested recipes explained in detail, then
oh man, you're going to love the video
linked on screen. I'll see you there.