Vodka Sauce, Take Two

Vodka sauce on pasta is probably one of my top five favorite foods.  I've made it once before but wasn't crazy about the results.  This recipe was really good; the crushed red pepper gave it a nice kick.  I made a few changes because the sauce was still really thin after only 30 minutes of simmering.  I ended up simmering it for 2 hours, until it was nice and thick.  This reduces the quantity of sauce a bit, so if you do this and are making sauce for a pound of pasta, I would double the recipe.

Next time I'll probably separately sauté more pancetta and add it in at the end.  It gave the sauce a great taste, but was fairly undetectable by the time the sauce was ready.

Vodka Sauce
Adapted from: Food and Wine

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, diced
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup vodka
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 35-ounce can whole peeled Italian tomatoes with their juices, crushed by hand
Pinch of sugar
2 basil leaves
1/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper

1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the pancetta, garlic (leave them whole), and crushed red pepper and stir occasionally, about 5 minutes, until golden. 

2. Deglaze the mixture with vodka and then add the tomato paste, stirring for about a minute.  Add the crushed tomatoes with their juices, stir in the sugar and basil leaves, and bring to a boil.  Then use the extra vodka to make yourself a bloody mary while you wait for the sauce to simmer (optional, but recommended).  

3. Reduce heat and simmer the sauce until it reaches your preferred consistency.  Remove basil and garlic and stir in heavy cream.  Simmer for another 5 minutes. 



The photos aren't spectacular but the sauce was! My sister and I share an obsession for adding broccoli to pasta with vodka sauce, hence the broccoli in the photo above.