Being a picky eater growing up, I didn't eat much more than salami and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (sorry mom). There was of course the random dish that would present itself and I would gobble down. This was typically something like pizza or chicken fingers.
And then there was Pasta alla Vodka.
Totally out of my acceptable range of items, I absolutely fell in love with this dish. The first time I had it was at Maggiano's, where we were having lunch for my Grandma's birthday. I'm pretty sure I ordered it to be a "rebel" as it contained vodka. Such a rebel. When the dish came and it was slightly pink in colour I was apprehensive. But it had vodka in it so of course I was going to try it! And thankfully I did - it was absolutely delicious.
For years I only ordered this dish at restaurants as I had tried to buy a pre-made jar from the store and it was disgusting. It was only this year that I finally decided to tackle the recipe from scratch - mainly because our neighbor grew tomatoes and gave us handfuls of them free every day. What better use than for the best pasta dish out there?
This recipe calls for 4 cups of blanched and diced tomatoes. For those unfamiliar with the process, it is actually quite simple. Basically all you do is drop your tomatoes in boiling water for a minute, plop them in ice water, then peel off their skin. WikiHow shows you how to do this step-by-step here: How to Blanch Tomatoes. If tomatoes are not in season when you are making this you can replace with canned, peeled whole tomatoes - just drain and dice.
From the recipe you will also see that at the end I used a stick blender to make the sauce creamier. I have always loved creamy sauces over chunky and will do this every time - but understand there will be people on the other side of the fence. I've included a before and after photo of the sauce to help you make your decision - the left is sauce as is, right is how it looks after it's been blended. Enjoy!
P.S. It never hurts to take down a shot of vodka while cooking - I mean you've already got it out 🙂
Pasta alla Vodka
Ingredients
- PASTA
- 1 lb rigatoni pasta
- 1 tbl olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups blanched & diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup vodka
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tbl tomato paste
- 1/3 cup shredded parmesan
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
- __
- GARNISH
- Shredded parmesan
- Freshly torn basil
Directions
- Step 1 Blanch and dice your tomatoes, set aside.
- Step 2 Salt your water and bring to a boil.
- Step 3 While your water is boiling, place your olive oil in a 12in pan on medium heat. Add your minced garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add your blanched tomatoes, red pepper flakes and tomato paste. Let simmer for 15minutes.
- Step 4 Once your water is boiled, add in your pasta and let cook. Make sure you do not overcook, you want the pasta to be al dente as you will cook them another few minutes in the sauce.
- Step 5 After your sauce has simmered, add in the vodka. Increase the heat to medium and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in cream and parmesan, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Step 6 Optional step! I prefer my sauces creamier, so at this point I take a stick blender and blend the sauce for about a minute. If you prefer a chunkier sauce, skip this step.
- Step 7 Drain and add your pasta directly into the sauce, including a few spoonfuls of the pasta water (it has great starches and with help thicken the sauce). Simmer for another 5 minutes, or until the sauce coats each noodle.
- Step 8 Sprinkle with additional parmesan and chopped basil and serve!
