Rigatoni With Vodka Sauce Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What does adding vodka to pasta sauce do? ›

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.

Rigatoni. Generally speaking, noodles with hollow tubes are the best for vodka sauce because the shape allows each noodle to gather the delicious sauce. That's why rigatoni is a very popular choice to pair with vodka sauce.

If you can taste the vodka in the sauce, you've likely added too much, or perhaps you added it too late. The good news is that this is a simple fix. Just keep simmering the sauce to reduce the alcohol content.

Vodka does alter the flavor of the sauce in a pleasing way. It adds a touch of heat and a bit of a sharp bite that help balance out the sweetness of the tomatoes and the cream.

Using a hefty dose of tomato paste gives the sauce the deeply sweet base notes it needs, while a small can of tomatoes adds a brighter layer of flavor. Very gently cooking the onions and garlic in butter makes them very sweet and mild, without any harsh onion flavor remaining in the final sauce.

You only need a handful of ingredients to make homemade vodka sauce with pasta and ground beef: Ground beef – Use 80/20 lean ground beef so the meal isn't overly greasy. Alternatively, replace the ground beef with ground turkey or chicken or sliced Italian sausages instead.

Vodka Sauce is great with Penne Ziti, but you can create a much more elaborate pasta creation with hot or sweet Italian sausage, classic meatballs or mini meatballs or chicken. The dish of pasta and sauce can be complemented with a leafy green salad, roasted vegetables, sautéed greens, garlic bread and more.

The best side dishes to serve with penne alla vodka are crispy green beans, caprese salad, stuffed mushrooms, chicken nuggets, ratatouille, kale chips, brussels sprouts with bacon, crispy garlic bread, Italian antipasto salad, grilled chicken, roasted asparagus, shrimp scampi, and Italian stuffed peppers.

Pelosi explains that adding vodka later in the process results in a glossier, thicker sauce. “The vodka kind of brings it all together as the last piece before the pasta water,” he says. It's a popular method for a reason: Pelosi's recipe is famously stable and prevents curdling.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vodka, tomatoes and salt to taste. Return the skillet to medium heat and simmer, stirring often, until the alcohol cooks off, about 7 minutes.

How to get bitterness out of vodka sauce? ›

If you've got an overwhelming taste of vodka you just haven't burnt off enough of the alcohol. In such case just continue simmering the sauce to reduce down the alcohol. The longer you simmer the less powerful the vodka will be. Use your starchy pasta water if you need to thin out the sauce in order to do this.

Lemonade

It always seems to do the trick no matter what vodka I'm drinking. If you're a fan of Wave, then this is the mixer you need to pair it with.

Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Pour in the tomato paste, along with the red pepper flakes, and cook it until the tomato paste turns a really dark red color, about 3 minutes. Add the vodka and let it sizzle and allow the vodka to cook off a bit, about 1 minute. Pour in the heavy cream and mix it until smooth.

When you are making a vodka sauce for your pasta, break open a less expensive bottle of Smirnoff or Finladia grapefruit vodka. These more budget-friendly options will work just as well and no one will be able to tell the difference!

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.

Vodka: Vodka is added to the sauce to enhance the tomato and cream flavors and release certain flavors from the tomatoes that might not otherwise be present in the sauce. It also acts as an emulsifier to help blend the cream with the tomatoes.

When alcohol of any sort is added as an ingredient it serves to both deepen the flavors in the dish itself as well as enhances the experience of those flavors. It does this by acting as a bridge between your olfactory and physical sense of taste while also bonding with fat molecules.

While delicious, vodka isn't just for drinking. It can bring out the flavors in your pasta sauce, help you marinate your meat and even make your pastries flakier. It can also make the process of cooking more delicious too — if you sip on a co*cktail while you prep your meal.

“Vodka adds depth to a sauce both by pulling out additional flavor and concentrating others without adding a flavor of its own," says Bart Saracino, co-owner of the Bartolino's Restaurants, where Cavatelli alla Vodka (shell noodles, sautéed shrimp, fresh garlic, light olive oil, a splash of vodka, and cream reduction) ...