Vodka Sauce
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Amazingly creamy, so bright, and super quick + easy. Comes together in 30 min! Serve with additional fresh Parmesan. SO SO GOOD.
Whoa. Just whoa.
This has been on my dinner table almost every day this week.
It’s creamy. It’s bright. It’s quick. It’s easy. And it’s seriously got EVERYTHING you need – pasta, vodka, butter and fresh Parm. Do we need anything else?
I think not. And if you need some protein in this, you can throw in leftover rotisserie chicken and let that saucy goodness soak right in.
I personally love the shape of the radiatore pasta because it catches so much of the sauce but you can also sub in penne, rotini, or rigatoni!
Vodka Sauce
Ingredients
- 8 ounces radiatore pasta
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 medium shallots, diced
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more, to taste
- ¼ cup vodka
- 1 (14-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup basil leaves, chiffonade
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; reserve 1 cup water and drain well.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. Add garlic and shallots, and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 4-5 minutes.
- Stir in tomato paste and red pepper flakes until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Working carefully, stir in vodka, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
- Stir in crush tomatoes and sugar. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in heavy cream and Parmesan until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in pasta, adding reserved pasta water as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with basil, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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I made the sauce as directed, I used small sewer pipes but I added to the finished sauce mushrooms, and sautéed zucchini and onions. I also stirred in pound browned ground Italian sausage. Viola!
We add Italian sausage and it is just the perfect pasta meal. So good!
Absolutely delicious….topped this devious sauce over some mushroom Asiago ravioli found at my local sprouts store. Probably would lessen the sugar next round but honestly a great recipe. Thank you.
This was absolutely amazing. Will make it over and over again for sure
It was too sweet.
Easy and delicious, I did skip using paste, still came out delicious .
Soooo good and incredibly easy! I only made some minor adjustments: I used whole milk instead of heavy cream, and I used half a yellow onion instead of shallots. I steamed some broccoli and added that to the pasta and sauce at the end which was a nice way to sneak in some veggies. My husband and I will be making this a weeknight staple!
Can I make the sauce the morning of my dinner party and reheat it?
Thank you!
DELICIOUS!! Vodka sauce is one of my favorite sauces to order at restaurants but I had never made it at home. This recipe was easy to follow, and I did not stray from it except I used one really large shallot and 4 tablespoons of butter instead of 3 (more by accident). It turned out amazing!!
This is a new favorite at our house! It’s so easy to make and packs a ton of flavor! Would it be possible to make ahead and freeze it?
Hey! How did it freeze? I am thinking about doing the same but am not sure how the texture is when it is reheated. Thanks 🙂
So good! Made this last night and the recipe was easy to follow and came together perfectly. My two teenagers said the next time their friends come over for dinner I should make this again because it was so good! Woohoo! I used tomato sauce instead of paste (3x as much sauce to paste ratio) because I didn’t realize I was out of paste, yellow onion instead of shallots and canned crushed tomatoes with basil already in them instead of fresh basil because I didn’t have any and it was still soo good! Definitely adding this into the regular dinner rotation.
My hubby made this to serve on our Rana lobster ravioli. It was “Damn Delicious”!!! I can’t wait to make this for my 13 year old Grandson Charlie and other family members who love vodka sauce. They all will absolutely love it!
I’d rate it ten stars! Thanks Chunguh.
Damn Delicious Vodka Sauce……and simple too!
Basic, tasty dish to add to your repertoire. I added half the cream and pecorino and it was pretty damn good.
This is literally 11/10, at this point, I don’t need to go out to eat for quality vodka sauce
So tasty, though I did take some artistic license with the recipe to fit my tastes.
It’s pretty easy to make. I first made this last weekend, served it over some sauted mushrooms, peppers, and eggplant with some pasta thrown in. I made enough to have dinners for the week. I ate it in 3 days.
Making it again this week, made extra to save, and I’m going to have to portion out the dinners so that i have food all week. Again, great recipe, relatively easy to make.
My 15 year old son saw this and we made it! We added chicken to it…It was darn delicious!
I wanted to make a lobster ravioli with vodka sauce bc restaurants are inconsistent….and this was a WINNER!!!! Easy to make and full of flavor!!!
This was so easy and so good! Don’t skimp on buying good crushed tomatoes, and go ahead and eat a loaf of bread to wipe up this tasty sauce… No judgment here.
Wow this is so good. I made it with gnocchi and it was fantastic.