Made this. Loved it.
But why cook with alcohol?
According to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, alcohol bonds with the fat and water molecules in your food and carries flavor and aroma. In other words, in a creamy tomato sauce like the one in Penne alla Vodka, the vodka makes the dish smell and taste better, adding brightness and balance to the dish. This only enhances your cooking when the alcohol is added in small quantities, though. According to McGee, too much alcohol and you smell the alcohol and taste its bitterness rather than the aromas and flavors of the food.
So, if you have a lot of extra vodka on your hands, you will just have to drink it rather than cook with it!
I hope you enjoy this dish. I found myself wishing I had made a bigger batch.
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes (drained with juice reserved)
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1/4 C. finely chopped onion
- 1 T. tomato paste
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1/4-1/2 t. red pepper flakes
- Salt
- 1/3 C. vodka
- 1/2 C. heavy cream
- 1 pound penne
- 2 T. chopped fresh basil
- Grated Parmesan cheese (or Asiago)
- Slices of fresh mozzarella
Instructions
- Put half of your tomatoes in your food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Chop remaining tomatoes into 1/2-inch pieces (discard cores). Using a large measuring cup, combine blended and chopped tomatoes. Add reserved juice from the tomatoes to the cup until you have 2 cups of tomatoes and liquid.
- Saute onion and tomato paste in oil over medium heat in a large pan. You want the onion to be soft and the whole mixture to be slightly browned. This will take 5 to 7 minutes. Add the minced garlic to the hot pan along with the pepper flakes (to your taste--a little goes a long way here) and cook briefly until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add tomato mixture and salt to the pan with the onion mixture. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in vodka. Return the pan to the heat and simmer at medium-high heat for 8 to 10 minutes--until most of the alcohol is cooked off. Add the cream and cook for about one minute until the creamy sauce is hot.
- Prepare penne. You want it to be cooked al dente. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water and drain the pasta. Return the drained pasta to the pot and toss the pasta with the sauce. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes to let the penne absorb some of the sauce. Add (or not) reserved pasta water to adjust the consistency of the sauce.
- Stir in basil. Season with salt and pepper. Top with grated parmesan and slices of fresh mozzarella . Cover the dish with foil that has been sprayed with vegetable oil spray and bake in the oven for a few minutes until the mozzarella melts.
- Garnish with chopped basil or chopped parsley.
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This recipe is adapted from one that appears in The America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook. The cookbook is available on Amazon. Here is a link: Amazon.
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