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!
JamieAnne says
How yummy! This looks wonderful! Well done!
Charles says
The local pasta place makes a pretty good vodka/tomato sauce, but I have to say yours looks way better. They don’t add any cream – yours looks so rich and creamy – great job!
bakerbynature says
Hi Charles! The cream is what makes it so decadent- a must!
TheCookieBoss says
Oh my gosh! That is the greatest-looking pasta I’ve ever seen!
bakerbynature says
Thank you, my dear! It was super tasty, and the cream sauce was a decadent way to relax on a weeknight.
Cooking Creation says
I share your love for pasta and I think my family would adore this recipe! Bookmarking!
bakerbynature says
Pasta- it’s a beautiful thing! I hope your family loves it as much as we did; it really is so delicious, and so so easy to whip up.
yummychunklet says
Yum! This looks delicious and sounds easy to make. Fancy without the fuss!
bakerbynature says
Fancy without the fuss is what my life is all about! It was so delicious, I was teary eyed to see the last of the sauce go yesterday.
Three-Cookies says
I have never tried this. There is a generous amount of vodka so it must be super delicious. I wonder if this is a French/Russian fusion?
bakerbynature says
There are actually (as most things in life) a few people who take credit for making the first penne a la vodka. From Bologna, Italy; New York, NY; Naples, Italy; and Rome, Italy- all have claimed to be the first to whip up this decadent vodka creation. There is a heavy pour of vodka, I find adding the extra 1/4 cup gives it an extremely crisp/ clean taste that I have always enjoyed in a vodka sauce.
Ashley @ The Drunk Squash says
I’ve never actually made vodka sauce… yep, I’m guilty of using the jar… but yours looks so delicious. It definitely makes me want to try this myself, thanks for the recipe!
bakerbynature says
Hi Ashley, great name- I’m an Ashley too. The jar is so easy to fall into a habit of using, but I promise you- once you try homemade, you will never look at jar sauce again. I’m going to have a few other pasta recipes coming up soon (we went a bit pasta crazy this week), so come back, maybe one of them will inspire you to cheat on the jar.
bakerbynature says
Hey Maris. I love penne vodka, and the fact that it is so delicious and easy to whip up for last minute guests makes it a winner for sure!
Kelly says
Mmm… cream, tomato, crushed pepper flakes and fresh basil – I don’t even need the vodka – I’m already high from these other glorious ingredients! : )
bakerbynature says
Hi Kelly! I know what you mean- the vodka only adds to the already magnificent ingredient list! I am soaking up every last leaf of this glorious fresh Summer basil.
Gina @ Running to the Kitchen says
Penne a la vodka is one of my guilty pleasures. There is this one local authentic Italian place we go to sometimes, a total hole in the wall kind of place where I’ll order it and usually nowhere else. Sooo good 🙂
bakerbynature says
Hi Gina! Guilty pleasures are what life is made of, right?! Hole in the wall places, especially Italian, always seem to surprise you with knock out dishes. I worked at a little “mom and pop” Italian restaurant when I was a teenager and it was some of the best food I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming.