Penne with Vodka Sauce
Ingredients
1 pound pasta, such as penne
3 cups marinara Sauce, puréed until very smooth
1⁄4 cup vodka
1⁄2 cup half and half
1⁄2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta as directed by packaging. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a heavy, large skillet, simmer the marinara sauce and vodka over low heat, stirring often, until the mixture reduces by one fourth, about 20 minutes. Stir in the half and half and continue to simmer over low heat until the sauce is heated through. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the parmesan, salt, and pepper. Season the salt with more salt and pepper to taste.
3. Toss sauce with pasta and serve.
Comments
I’ve always heard people rave about Penne alla Vodka and decided to try it for myself one day. I found this recipe in Giada DeLaurentiis’s Everyday Italian. The original recipe called for a whopping one cup of vodka and we all found that amount to be quite vile. The original recipe also didn’t call to process the sauce prior to cooking and we found that the tomato chunks became completely unpalatable with absorbed vodka.
The second time I made the recipe I included two tweaks – reducing the vodka to 1⁄4 cup and puréeing the marinara. With those changes we all loved the dish and gobbled it up.
Shown here with Mom’s Chicken.
Everyday Italian