Pasta with Vodka Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What pasta goes best with vodka sauce? ›

Most recipes call for penne, and it's an option here, but at Serious Eats we love this sauce even more with rigatoni.

Normally it includes real cream for richness but I'm using reduced-fat milk. Great news though, it still retains the decadent flavor of a regular recipe but with a fraction of the fat and calories. In addition, I've placed it over fiber rich whole wheat penne instead of white pasta.

Wine works, too, but a clean-tasting vodka has mostly water and ethanol (a solvent), which is excellent at carrying aromatic compounds — like those in tomatoes. In other words, the vodka in this dish can help you smell, and in turn taste, the sauce's flavors in a heightened way.

While the pasta is cooking, add butter and olive oil to a sauce pan on medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes until tender. Then, add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the vodka and let the alcohol cook off for 1-2 minutes.

In a vodka sauce, the vodka helps maintain a cohesive texture, allowing the creaminess to meld with the tomato base. And sure, you could use wine to the same effect, but in a sauce as rich as vodka sauce, it's better to use a small amount of alcohol that will impart as little of its own flavor as possible.

Is vodka sauce a mix of marinara sauce and alfredo? No. Alfredo sauce mixed with marinara sauce is known as pink sauce. While pink sauce and vodka sauce are both types of tomato sauce, they are not the same thing.

Sour cream is an easy replacement for heavy cream. It can be easily stirred into a dish and offers another flavor profile to soups, stews and sauces. Plus, using it as a heavy cream substitute is a great way to use up that lingering tub in the fridge.

You can use whole milk or opt for skim milk to help slash the calories and fat content of your recipe. This substitute is especially useful in cooking, but it may alter the texture of baked goods and will not whip as well as heavy cream.

This means that undiluted alcohol overpowers natural flavors, but smaller traces (typically achieved by "burning off" the vodka) actually release new flavors. So it's not that vodka adds flavor, it's that vodka unlocks flavors already hidden in the tomato.

Is it absolutely necessary? No, but vodka sauce just wouldn't be, well, vodka sauce without it. To get a vodka sauce with a 2% ABV before simmering, you'll need to add 5% of the volume of the sauce in 80-proof vodka.

Can kids eat vodka sauce? ›

The general consensus was that a vodka pasta sauce should be safe for children, if cooked thoroughly. "Traditional vodka sauce uses such a small amount of alcohol that it should evaporate out during cooking," Dr. Rachel Prete, pediatrician with Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, told POPSUGAR.

An average ratio of tomato sauce to pasta is 1 1/2 cups of sauce to 1 pound of pasta. For oil-based sauces, use 1 cup per 1 pound of pasta. Go even lighter with creamy, rich sauces. Typically, we like the ratio of one jar of our sauce to 1 pound (or package) of our pasta.

It emulsifies the flavors of each ingredient. Some flavor compounds are water soluble, some alcohol soluble. Adding vodka to tomato sauce releases flavors from the tomatoes that you would otherwise never taste.

As the sauce simmers, some of the alcohol in the spirit evaporates, according to Popsugar. The longer the sauce cooks, the more alcohol will burn off. A well-cooked vodka sauce is safe for even children to eat — that's how negligible the alcohol content ends up being.

Penne alla vodka (Italian: [ˈpenne alla ˈvɔdka]) is a pasta dish made primarily with vodka and penne (or similar shapes such as rigatoni), usually accompanied with heavy cream, crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce, onions, and sometimes small meats and vegetables like sausage, pancetta or peas.

Vodka sauce is a mouth-watering tomato-based sauce that features the use of heavy cream, living somewhere between an Alfredo sauce and tomato-based sauce. Vodka sauce recipes will vary, but the most common ingredients include tomatoes, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, fresh herbs, and a splash of vodka.

No, you can't get drunk off vodka sauce

As the sauce simmers, some of the alcohol in the spirit evaporates, according to Popsugar. The longer the sauce cooks, the more alcohol will burn off. A well-cooked vodka sauce is safe for even children to eat — that's how negligible the alcohol content ends up being.

It's a spicy vodka sauce but without the vodka. It's super creamy, indulgent, and the best pasta dish to make for any occasion. It always impresses yet it's so easy to make.