Watch: Easy and delicious vodka pasta recipe
Who knew adding vodka to pasta sauce could be the best decision you make this week?
Ok so people might be baking a block of feta with some tomatoes and stirring it through pasta this week, but next week, it'll be back to delicious ole' vodka pasta. It's a staple, it's a recipe you just keep going back to time and time again. It's bloody great.
Mix a few simple ingredients together, get huge flavour, and a dish you genuinely won’t be able to stop munching your way through.
For those of you wondering, despite vodka not having a particularly strong or easily definable flavour, it really is key to a vodka sauce (not just in name). It has an emulsifying effect, helping the sauce to become creamier and more tomato-ey (technical term). It also cuts through the creaminess and adds a sharp, bright flavour to it.
So, time to make the dish everyone’s obsessed with (or will be once they get over the feta thing, which does look great to be honest...). This is my vodka pasta recipe. Watch the vid, and the full recipe is below.
The pasta dish you NEED in your life
Ingredients
- 500g packet of pasta – your choice of shape. Make sure it's rigate.
- 150g tomato puree
- 150g Parmesan (keep the rind, you’ll need it)
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped/grated
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 100ml vodka
- 200ml crème fraîche (double cream if you’re really going for it)
- Optional: Mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, a good handful of each, chopped
- Red chilli, finely chopped (optional if you don't like it hot)
- Basil
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Chop your onion and garlic nice and fine. And chop your red chillies if you’re using them.
- Add a little oil to a pan on a medium heat. Cook your onions until translucent (10ish minutes), then add your garlic (and chilli). Fry those off for a minute or two.
- Add your tomato puree and cook all that for around five minutes.
- Now it’s vodka time. Get all those sticky bits off the bottom of your pan with a wooden spoon. Let the alcohol burn off – which should only take 30 seconds or so.
- At this point, add your veggies if you're using them.
- Then add your crème fraîche.
- Chop the rind off your Parmesan cheese (yup, seriously) and add it to the pan, mix it all around, and turn down to a low heat.
- At this point, get your pasta on and salt the water generously. Cook it a couple of minutes short of the recommended cooking time so it's al dente.
- While your pasta's cooking, add 150g grated Parmesan, and a decent amount of salt and pepper to your sauce.
- Once your pasta is cooked al dente, remove it from the heat and drain. Make sure you keep some of the pasta water to add to your sauce.
- Toss your pasta in the sauce, and add around 100ml of pasta water. Mix it all around until combined.
- Serve in big bowls, top with plenty of basil and more Parmesan cheese (of course!).
Recipe by
Rachael Hogg
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Comments (8)
I’m feeling attacked by the feta pasta comment. Since I did indeed already have that this week, this could potentially be next weeks pasta recipe though and somehow it’s better when I don’t have to admit to myself with each bite that the recipe came from *sigh* tiktok
hahaha please don't feel personally attacked. I am also going to make the feta pasta soon...
Haha totally kidding. It is good, I really hate to admit it!
This looks quite good. Surprising fact... I've never had a normal bottle of vodka in my liquor cabinet. Hahaha
Uhh can you eat this and drive your car afterwards?
Sounds pretty good
My advice for cooking with vodka: bring a blanket and a pillow