any favorite penne ala vodka recipies

Hi
My daughter is cooking for her dorm and wants a good penne ala vodka recipie. Anybody have a favorite way of making this?

thanks,

psychchef

I use the recipe out of Patricia Well's Trattoria cookbook (I guess I shouldn't post it--copyright infridgement). It's one of my favorite quick and easy dishes. I use Pomi (an Italian brand of tomatoes that come in a box, made by Parmalat) instead of canned tomatoes. It's pretty simple. If you were,say, browsing in a book store, you could probably commit it to memory.

I once posted a query about the very point of vodka sauce, since the whole point of vodka is to have virtually no flavor to begin with. I was very quickly disabused of my ignorant assumption and educated about the effect that the alcohol has on the tomato, etc. In any case, I immediately started trying it, and found that most recipes seem pretty similar, as do the results. Look for one that seems pretty straightforward and simple, and it will probably work out very well. Just use quality ingredients such as the above mentioned Pomi, or other trustworthy tomatos, and good pasta.

I've got a recipe at home written on a scrap of paper that we've used to good effect. I'm pretty sure it's something like this:

Saute 1 cup of chopped onion in 1 T olive oil and 1 T butter until soft. Add 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes. Simmer until the sauce is thick and most of the liquid has evaporated, 25-30 minutes. Add 1 cup of cream, 1/4 cup vodka, and crushed red pepper to taste (1/4 tsp my wife likes, I'd double that or maybe a little more). Let cook for another 5 minutes so the vodka cooks off and the flavors blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix with 1 lb. of penned.

Delicious, simple, and cheap. Great college dish. In fact, now that you mention it, I think we first started preparing this dish in college.

Cheers,

Aaron

Lidia Bastianich has a very simple and very good recipe for this in her book "Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen".

You can find it here.

You've inspired to make this tomorrow! Thanks!

Bill/SFNM

Psychchef,

Here's a link to the penne ala vodka recipe I use. The thread goes on to discuss, intermittently, the dish.

Enjoy,
Gary

mrbarolo wrote:I once posted a query about the very point of vodka sauce, since the whole point of vodka is to have virtually no flavor to begin with. I was very quickly disabused of my ignorant assumption and educated about the effect that the alcohol has on the tomato, etc.

The science is explained here.