Join us for a sizzling episode of The Cooking with Keith Show as Chef Keith Kuhn dives into the delicious debate surrounding Penne Alla Vodka! Strap in as Chef Keith takes on this culinary conundrum, exploring its origins and whipping up a mouthwatering version right in your kitchen.
Penne Alla Vodka has long been a favorite among pasta enthusiasts, but its birthplace is shrouded in controversy. Is it a Roman invention, steeped in centuries of Italian tradition, or a product of the bustling culinary scene of New York City? Either way it’s the best selling dish at Valeria so Chef Keith is showing you how to make it!
But that’s not all—Chef Keith reveals a secret twist that takes Penne Alla Vodka to new heights. Drawing inspiration from his culinary adventures, he infuses the dish with his own unique flair, elevating it to a whole new level of deliciousness.
So, whether you’re Team Rome or Team NYC, one thing’s for sure: you won’t want to miss this showdown of flavors on “The Cooking with Keith Show”! Like, comment, and subscribe for more tantalizing recipes, culinary adventures, and cooking inspiration. Buon appetito!
Remember: “You Can Do This!”
⭐️ Please subscribe for more amazing recipes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGS5LijTIuRczpnMhdUsg6Q?sub_confirmation=1
⭐️ Eat at Valeria Restaurant:
https://valeriarestaurant.com
⭐️ Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/valeriaboerne
⭐️ Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/valeriaboerne/
🎥 Chef: Keith Kuhn
🎥 Videographer: Ben Roberts
🎥 Produced by: RW Medias
https://www.rwmedias.com
Recipe:
Penna Alla Vodka (Serves 2)
• 180 Grams Penne
• 1/2 Of a White onion
• 2 Table Spoons Tomato Paste
• 1 Generous Shot Vodka
• 18-20 Cherry Tomatoes -Halved
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper
• Sicilian Oregano- 1 Pinch
• Calabrian Chili -To Taste
• Extra Virgin Olive
Hi, I’m Keith. Welcome back to Cooking with Keith. Today, we’ll be doing an interesting pasta dish Penne Alla vodka. Many people dispute where it was invented. Some people say it was Rome. Some people say New York City. But either way, it’s our top selling pasta at our restaurant.
It’s basically. using vodka with tomatoes and cream. So it’s kind of in between a tomato sauce and an alfredo. What Americans think of as an Alfredo sauce. So it does have cream. It’s a rich dish. It’s not light because of the cream, but with the tomato infusion and that and the vodka,
It has some wonderful aromatics when you’re eating it it’s a very nice taste. It’s been in and out of fashion for the last 50 years, but it’s having a big resurgence now. And so I wanted to show everyone how to make it. You can easily do this at home by following our steps.
Let’s get started. First, we’re going to salt our water that we already have boiling a nice, generous amount then We’re going to add some penne, a pasta about 90 grams per person. We’ll be doing a two person serving today. So it’s 180 grams, which will roughly double in weight after it’s cooked.
And now we have our pan heating up on low heat. We’re going to get our mise en place ready. We’re going to chop some white onion. We’ll get some extra virgin olive oil in our pan, and we’ll get the onion in there and set around a little more.
Extra virgin olive oil as needed. So we’ll put a little bit of salt to help soften the onions and we’ll put a little ground pepper next, about two good tablespoons of tomato paste. We’re going to get that down, make a little room and let it make contact with the surface of the pan
So that it can kind of toast out or caramelize out the any tin flavor remaining kind of toasty. And it really develops the flavor better. Now we’ll prepare some cherry tomatoes, which will give a little fresh zing to the to the dish, we’ll just half them and those will go in.
But after we splashed with some Vodka, a good shot of vodka will turn the heat up. So it gives a little flambé. And there you have it. Then we’re using a local vodka enchanted rock, which is just about 45 minutes away from here.
So we’re trying to support little local businesses here At the same time And we’ll stir that around, we’ll put our tomatoes in. Don’t worry about cooking off all the alcohol unless alcohol is an issue because we want a little bit of vodka remaining, to give us wonderful aromatics, as you’re eating.
Also, this is a rich dish It’s going to have cream about a half a cup of cream per person. So I have a cup and we’re going to pour that in now. And the vodka acts as actually a nice… as a nice emulsifier. So it’ll do its work and start
Binding the ingredients and the flavors together. And now we need about seven more minutes for our penne. So I will turn this down and let it simmer those 7 minutes. And during that time it’ll thicken up combined and make a wonderful velvety sauce at somewhere between a tomato sauce and an Alfredo.
What Americans think of is an alfredo sauce a thickened cream sauce. So it’s going to be somewhere kind of in between there, but with a nice tang and the nice richness of the cream. It’s going to be a wonderful dish. Lastly, I’m going to put a little bit of Calabrian chile
That we put through a spice grinder and it’s quite spicy, so I’m going to put just a pinch of that and I’m also going to put just a pinch of Sicilian oregano, dried oregano. I’m going to keep stirring it, making sure it’s getting happy
And now we’re just 2 minutes away from the penny being ready. But now I wanted to get a look at this source. How? It’s bubbling away. You can tell It’s. It’s come together. See the little bubbles, and it’s velvety. It’s really glossy. It’s perfectly where it should be.
And you can see the little. the little bobs of fresh tomato. And it’s thickening just perfectly. It’s going to be great. We’re going to put a little bit of the pasta cooking water in here as well to make it even velvety and more creamy without adding any more cream than it already has.
And now we’re going to take our penne out and add it to the sauce. There you go. I’m going to start around it mixed in with all the sauce. As you can see, it went in and instantly thickened up. It may be just a bit too thick to serve,
But we have our magic in the pasta water. We’ll have the starches from their little combined. We’ll turn the heat up a little bit more and I lightly salted the pasta water. So it’s not going to be adding a lot of salt to the dish,
Just enough salt to make the pasta the positive. Well, and there we are coming together perfectly. I’m just going to add a little more little ground pepper to this, a little more spice. Get a spoon. Dang, where are the spoons Oh and a fork! *Laughs*
And I will give a little taste to the sauce. see if it needs any adjusting Perfect. It does need a little more pasta water. It’s getting a little thick again. You know, we’ll just stir it around a little more and we’re going to put a little Parmesan Reggiano.
So I’m going to turn the heat off and we’re going to fresh grate with a fine microplane some parmesan right in there. Not a lot. Right now, we’re going to put on more when we plate, but just enough to get the Parmesan deep into the soul of the pasta.
We’ll turn this water off over here, and now we’ll stir everything together and plate now we’ll do our final touch of a little more parmigiano-reggiano. And over here. And lastly, a little fresh parsley. And now we’ll see how it taste. Get a little tomato in there, very velvety, very, very nicely integrated.
You can taste the tang of the tomatoes, the richness of the parmesan and the cream, and you get that little hint of the vodka in there, really deep, long flavor. Delicious. Delicioso So you can make this at home. It’s easy. Follow our steps and you can do this buon appetito