Penne Alla Vodka
Tomato paste cooked down with vodka and cream into a sauce that is already thick before the penne ever touches it.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
About 3 cups of sauce.
- ThinSlim 8 oz ThinSlim Foods Impastable Low Carb Pasta Penne
- 2 tbsp kosher salt, for the pasta water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 small yellow onion, minced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1/3 cup double concentrated tomato paste
- 1/3 cup vodka
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
- Black pepper
- A handful of basil leaves, torn
Shop this recipe
Made with ThinSlim. Figures are the product label, not the finished dish.
Swap it
Method
- Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil and add the kosher salt. It should taste like seasoned soup.
- Heat the oil and butter in a wide skillet over medium. Cook the onion with a pinch of salt until soft and translucent, about 6 minutes.
- Add the garlic and crushed red pepper. Cook 1 minute.
- Stir in the tomato paste. Keep it moving over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, until it darkens to brick red and smells sweet instead of raw.
- Pour in the vodka. Scrape the pan and let it bubble until the pan looks dry again, about 2 minutes.
- Add the cream and 1/2 cup water. Simmer until the sauce coats a spoon and a line drawn through it with your finger holds for a second. Do not stop short here.
- Cook the penne in the boiling water to the package timing. Taste a piece a minute early.
- Drain the penne. Do not save the cooking water, it will not help you.
- Turn off the heat under the sauce. Add the penne and the Parmesan and fold until every tube is coated inside and out.
- Finish with black pepper and torn basil.
Tips
Most vodka sauce recipes tell you to loosen the sauce at the end with a ladle of starchy pasta water. That trick does nothing here. Impastable is made from wheat protein and egg, so the water it cooks in comes out close to plain water. Build the sauce to the exact thickness you want to eat before the penne goes in. If you leave it thin planning to fix it later, it stays thin.
Salt the water like you mean it. Two tablespoons of kosher salt to four quarts is right. There is no starch sweetness in this pasta to carry flavor on its own.
Leftovers hold up because the penne keeps its shape overnight instead of swelling into the sauce. Reheat in a covered skillet over low heat with a splash of cream, not water.
Salt the water like you mean it. Two tablespoons of kosher salt to four quarts is right. There is no starch sweetness in this pasta to carry flavor on its own.
Leftovers hold up because the penne keeps its shape overnight instead of swelling into the sauce. Reheat in a covered skillet over low heat with a splash of cream, not water.