I Made the French Onion Pasta That's All Over TikTok - and It's My New Fave

The best meals are the ones that are easy to pull off yet taste like you spent all day in the kitchen. This french onion pasta from TikTok is one of them. Originally shared by creator Carolyn of @carolbeecooks, the recipe is a pasta version of french onion soup, as it includes many of the same ingredients along with the addition of pasta.

As Carolyn demonstrates in her viral video, the dish starts off exactly the same way as the classic soup, with a bit of butter and some sliced onions. Once the onions caramelize, you simply deglaze the pot with sherry and white wine before adding thyme, beef broth, and worcestershire sauce. While you could easily stop at this point and serve it with cheese and bread like a regular french onion soup, Carolyn takes it a step further and adds uncooked rigatoni.

Most pasta recipes call for boiling the pasta separately and then draining it before adding it to the sauce, but for this one, you do it all in the same pot. Not only is it convenient (fewer dishes to do!), but it's also precisely what turns the soup into a sauce. As the pasta cooks, it releases starches into the broth, and by the time it's al dente, the soup will have reduced into a surprisingly creamy sauce thanks to the pasta starch. A bit of half-and-half and grated parmesan give the sauce an even more rich, decadent consistency with hardly any effort.

It's a lot like making cacio e pepe, except instead of reserving the leftover pasta water to mix into the cheese, it's already cooked into the sauce. This method, combined with the flavors of french onion soup, results in a satisfying one-pot meal, perfect for those times when you want to get something tasty on the table in as little time as possible. To learn how to make this french onion pasta, check out all the steps and ingredients ahead.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 large yellow onion (or 2 small onions)
1/8 cup sherry
1/4 cup dry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio
5 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box (8 ounces) rigatoni
3 cups beef stock or broth
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup half-and-half

Directions

Melt butter in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Thinly slice onion, and add to pot. Season with a generous pinch of salt. Stir, then cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove lid, turn heat to medium low, and cook for about 20 minutes until onions are caramelized. Stir occasionally. Pour in sherry and wine. Deglaze by scraping up the brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Add sprigs of fresh thyme, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add uncooked rigatoni, then pour in beef broth and worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 15 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Turn off heat. Discard thyme sprigs. Stir in freshly grated parmesan cheese and half-and-half until well combined. Serve immediately with additional parmesan cheese.