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 14.5 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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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?
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.
This sauce is absolutely delicious. I served over lobster filled raviolis and my husband declared it was world class.
So happy to read your review! That’s exactly what I wanted to make-Lobster ravioli with vodka sauce. I’m excited!
Followed the recipe as it is written, and it was really delicious. Thank you!!
I made this last night and it was EXCELLENT!! As good as any restaurant if not better! I used a whole box of rigatoni and subbed in fat free half and half for half the cream but other than that I followed this recipe to a tee. As always #damndelicious!!
This was amazing! I sautéed pancetta in a pan with oil until crispy and added it at the end. Also added about a teaspoon of salt to the sauce while it was reducing and a bit more cream than it called for. 10 out of 10!!
Absolutely delish!!So easy too
It was damn delicious! I think the shallots I had were a little too big and I might use my immersion blender on it next time, but it was outstanding! Definitely making again! Thanks!
Made for the first time tonight. Have added to my “must make” list of meatless dishes.
Omg I love your recipes. But this sauce… this sauce. I DREAM about this sauce. This will forever be a favorite of mine. Thank you
Fantastic flavor. Super easy, pour my Vodka sauce over Lobster Ravioli and hot sausage raviolis .
A must must do!!!
This looks delicious! I cannot wait to try it! Thank you so much! 🙂
Unbelievably delicious! I added shrimp and mushrooms. Thank you for all your great recipes.
This was so good and got the approval of all 3 kids (I am not counting the complaints about basil leaves)!
I made this for company and it was a hit. I used cellentani pasta (kind of curly). I added some freshly steamed shrimp to the dish too. Will definitely make this again!
Just the kind of recipe I was looking for. Thanks for sharing this.
Excellent flavor! I made it for the sauce for my knocci, and everyone loved it.
Thanks for the recipe.
Oops – won’t let me edit my typo. Used it for my GNOCCHI. Lol
Quick, easy, delicious. What more could you want? Why do people even buy jar sauce when it’s this easy to make your own?
This is probably a silly question. However I cannot have alcohol. Can the Vodka be omitted or substituted?
I use pasta water instead!
Chungah – We are a family of 5 so ideally I’d like to make the whole 1lb box of pasta to make this go further. If I do that, do you recommend I double all of the sauce ingredients as well?? Thank you!!
You might check with your health provider. The alcohol evaporates and leaves behind the flavor.
This sauce is amazing! I highly recommend it. I made with sausage tortellini and it was a hit at home, even my 5 year old loved it. This week I’m making double batch to freeze.
Wow! this is so amazing. Never tried pasta with Vodka sauce. I need to try this. Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe.
This may be a silly question but….Is tomato paste the same as tomato puree
TIA
No, they are two very different things. Paste is much more concentrated.
This was sooo good! I added some crumbled italian sausage and pancetta that needed to be used up, and subbed some non-dairy butter to compensate for the heavy cream and give my husband’s belly a break 🙂 Toddler approved and the leftovers heat up great.
Just made this recipe. It was very good. Thank you for sharing!
Pasta with vodka sauce is just like heaven on earth.
I love these recipes and so does my family! I’ve gotten my husband to try your asian dishes and he I haven’t been able to do that in 24 years! You make is so easy to make extra-delicious food!
Made this pasta. Got super wasted from all the vodka in the sauce. Good times.
LMAO youre retarded.
You must be the one at parties that sips on the same beer all night but you go around telling everyone youre wasted LOL
JK
But not really
LOL
I just cant tell if YOURE joking or not. You know the alcohol cooks off right? So like… You CANT get drunk. But you knew that. Right? LOL
Why would you call someone “r*tarded” – let alone on a recipe blog? So inappropriate and gross.
Pretty obvious Chala was being sarcastic. Seems it went over your head.
Are you okay, Lisa? I can only seem to find a reason for your gross behavior in the possibility that you have knocked back one too many… I have a tip; next time you go on a bender, stay off the internet.
LIKE YOUR RECIPE, ANYTHING WITH VODKA IS GREAT FOR ME, WILL GIVE A GREAT TASTE!!!