This Penne à la vodka recipe is rich, creamy, and so easy! Made with just a few simple ingredients, your whole family will love this creamy vodka pasta!!!

Penne à la vodka

I love pasta. Love Love Love IT! If I had to be stuck on a deserted island with only one food for the rest of my life, it would be pasta. I’m serious.

My cabinets are abound with orzo, penne, and farfalle; smaller shaped noodles are great for Summer!

Spaghetti to spaetzle- It makes me a very very happy girl. Have I mentioned I like pasta?

Variety is the spice of life, and pasta is like a blank canvas! A canvas that should be painted decadently with a glorious sauce worthy of the noodle. Sauce is important! Sauce from a jar is sacrilege! Don’t get me started…

 

It’s hard to say if a sauce can be better than one with vodka, cream, and butter?

I’ve been eating varieties of vodka sauce for years, although early in life it came from a glass jar with a blue label- guilty! The first time I attempted to make vodka sauce was after Charlie and I went to see ‘The Strokes’ at Madison Square Garden. We love The Strokes! We also loved whiskey that night… we can be troublemakers.

 

Newly enforced rule-  2 whiskey drinks or more and Ashley MAY NOT handle large sharp kitchen knives and/or operate the stove. Bleh… rules suck, and I can’t be stopped when i’m hungry!

 

Luckily, we did eat penne à la vodka that night, it was tasty in the “fine enough” way, and we went to bed full and happy. I also still have ten fingers and two eyes-  a boozy pasta miracle!

Thursday night I (soberly) triumphed in making a very luscious vodka sauce. It paired perfectly with a crusty loaf of Italian bread and a chilly bottle of white that had been lurking in the back of the fridge. A perfect meal to relax with on a weekday night. It made a beautiful bounty of sauce; I have been delighting in an afternoon ritual of  slicing baguette into thin ovals and dunking them in the creamy pink sauce as an pre dinner snack. Make pasta, make vodka sauce, and be merry.

Happy almost weekend, friends!

 

Penne a la vodka

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallots, minced

3/4 cup vodka

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream

(1) 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup thinly sliced basil

1 lb. penne, cooked al dente

Directions

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Swirl oil around and after a minute add butter, garlic, and shallots. Saute the mixture for a few minutes (around 4) allowing the shallots need to bring out their sweetness. Add vodka and gently stir to combine- allow vodka to reduce by half, this will take 2-4 minutes. Add chicken stock and tomatoes. Bring sauce to boil and reduce heat. Season with salt and pepper.

While sauce simmers, cook pasta in salted boiling water until cooked al dente.

Stir cream and crushed red pepper flakes into sauce. Allow sauce to come back to a boil and cook for another minute, then remove from heat. Drain pasta. Pour sauce over pasta and mix, add basil in right before serving.

Enjoy my lovelies!