Another one of my all time favorite pasta dishes and incredibly simple. As you can probably guess by now, I only post the things I like. Is there anything better than pasta? The key to the best alla vodka sauce is the extra tomato sauce and cooking the tomato paste down for a bit. It really enhances the flavor of the sauce. This recipe could easily be gluten-free by swapping out the noodles for GF pasta.
Ingredients:
- 6 tbsp. butter
- 2 shallot, minced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 4 tbsp. vodka
- Kosher salt
- 1 lb. tubed pasta, such as penne or rigatoni
- 1 cup. heavy cream
- 1 cup. freshly grated parmigiano reggiano, plus more for serving
- Basil, for serving
Directions:
Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallot and garlic, stirring frequently until softened, for approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
Stir in tomato paste and red pepper flakes, continuing to cook and stir until the paste coats the shallots and garlic and starts to darken, approximately 5 minutes.
Pour vodka into the pot, stirring to combine and scraping up any browned bits from the bottom. Turn off the heat.
Boil a large pot of salted water and cook the pasta until it reaches al dente. Before draining, reserve 2 cups of pasta water.
Return the sauce to medium heat, adding 1/4 cup of pasta water and heavy cream. Stir to combine, adding half of the Parmesan and stirring until melted.
Turn off the heat and mix in the cooked pasta. Fold in the remaining Parmesan, incorporating more pasta water (about a tablespoon at a time) if the sauce appears dry. Season with salt if necessary. Serve with additional Parmigiano and torn basil leaves on top.
