Pasta with Vodka Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What pasta goes with vodka sauce? ›

A creamy, silky tomato sauce. Penne is classic for Pasta alla Vodka because it really holds on to the sauce.

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.

Is vodka sauce a mix of marinara sauce and alfredo? No. Alfredo sauce mixed with marinara sauce is known as pink sauce. While pink sauce and vodka sauce are both types of tomato sauce, they are not the same thing.

Penne alla vodka (Italian: [ˈpenne alla ˈvɔdka]) is a pasta dish made primarily with vodka and penne (or similar shapes such as rigatoni), usually accompanied with heavy cream, crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce, onions, and sometimes small meats and vegetables such as sausage, pancetta or peas.

To answer your question, no, you can't get drunk off vodka sauce. The sauce will have a small hint of the vodka's minimal flavor and some of its aroma. This is because most of the spirit will evaporate when allowed to cook.

We reached out to a few experts to find out if we'd be better off fixing a simple tomato sauce on the side for the kids, or if vodka sauce is OK for the littles when consumed in moderation. The general consensus was that a vodka pasta sauce should be safe for children, if cooked thoroughly.

Is it absolutely necessary? No, but vodka sauce just wouldn't be, well, vodka sauce without it. To get a vodka sauce with a 2% ABV before simmering, you'll need to add 5% of the volume of the sauce in 80-proof vodka.

All vodka sauces contain the dominant components of tomato, heavy cream, and vodka, but beyond that, you'll find as much variation in the sauce as with the chefs who make it.

Keep in mind that extras such as cheese, meat and cream add calories, salt and fat, especially saturated fat. Alfredo, vodka and pesto sauces are higher in fat and calories than most tomato-based sauces. Alfredo and vodka sauces contain cream, which sends the saturated fat numbers soaring.

Why is vodka sauce called pink sauce? ›

However, pink sauce is in a separate category as a popular variation of vodka sauce. Pink sauce gets its name from its color, and while some pink sauce recipes will use vodka sauce as a base and add more cream to taste, many pink sauce recipes will vary widely from vodka sauce dishes.

Pink Sauce Pasta is cooked pasta tossed with equal parts red marinara sauce and white alfredo sauce which combine to make – you got it – a pink-hued sauce. Again, as simple as the combination sounds, it is mind blowingly delicious.

We love serving penne alla vodka for pasta night alongside easy Italian-inspired sides. Our favorites are a fresh Caesar Salad or Caprese Salad, plus Focaccia Bread for soaking up the leftover sauce. Try these other tasty serving suggestions: Garlic Bread – Get that restaurant feeling with homemade Garlic Bread.

Wine works, too, but a clean-tasting vodka has mostly water and ethanol (a solvent), which is excellent at carrying aromatic compounds — like those in tomatoes. In other words, the vodka in this dish can help you smell, and in turn taste, the sauce's flavors in a heightened way.

Vodka sauce is a tomato-based sauce that's spiked with a hint of vodka for extra tanginess, then softened with a splash of heavy cream that gives the sauce a gorgeous reddish-orange color.

So, it's real: vodka really does enhance the taste of tomato sauce, and it's really, really good. So give one of these recipes a try: 10 Classic Vodka Pasta Recipes with Creamy Tomato Sauces. See our entire collection of Pasta Sauce Recipes.

It's a spicy vodka sauce but without the vodka. It's super creamy, indulgent, and the best pasta dish to make for any occasion. It always impresses yet it's so easy to make. Dinner is ready in under 30 minutes!

We reached out to a few experts to find out if we'd be better off fixing a simple tomato sauce on the side for the kids, or if vodka sauce is OK for the littles when consumed in moderation. The general consensus was that a vodka pasta sauce should be safe for children, if cooked thoroughly.

The Origin of Vodka Sauce

Italians claim that the recipe was originated in a restaurant in the heart of Italy during the mid-'70s. Americans, however, claim that the sauce began by an Italian-American chef named Luigi Franzese at his restaurant in New York.