Easy Vodka Sauce Recipe

Homemade vodka sauce is a must-try! It’s creamy, luxurious, and loaded with flavor. It’s a quick and easy recipe perfect for busy weeknights. Try this vodka sauce recipe for your next pasta dinner! Ready in about 30 minutes with simple ingredients, this tasty pasta sauce is creamy and indulgent, with complex flavor from tomatoes, garlic, and a splash of vodka. Your family will love it!

RECIPE: https://preppykitchen.com/vodka-sauce/

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Hey, I’m John Canel and today on Preppy Kitchen, we’re making a creamy, delicious vodka sauce. So, let’s get started. First off, we have a little bit of prep work to do. You want half of a medium onion. Let’s just give that a chop. And we’re going to dice this up. Like so many dishes, this seems like a classic. Must have been around forever. But that’s not the case. This is actually a recipe that comes from either the 1970s or 1980s and either Bolognia, Italy or New York, USA, depending on who you ask. Either way, it’s a recent addition, but it really became a favorite. We’re going to blend this sauce, so don’t worry too much about how great your chopping is. Just aim for evenly sized pieces. This sauce is so good for, of course, pasta, but you could use it for meatballs, for chicken parm, over chicken thighs, pizza, or even as a dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks or bread sticks. That’s all done. I also have four garlic cloves here. Either give these a mince or pass them through a garlic press. This is the easier option, so I’ll be choosing that. I also want half a cup of freshly grated parm. That’s 24 g. You want to freshly grate the parm as opposed to using pre-graded parm because this will melt more easily. The packaged stuff as it’s drier. Perfect. Our final bit of prep is chopping the basil. You want to end up with two tablespoons about. Just remove the stems. The easiest way to do this is just to get all the leaves stacked together with a bit of a roll and then you can give them a chop. This is a really bad chifonade, but this is for a pasta sauce, so it doesn’t really matter. Everything’s all prepped out. So, let’s grab a large skillet, some butter, and olive oil. Place your large skillet over medium heat. Into that skillet, I’m adding 2 Tbsp of butter and 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Hm, that’s 1/4 cup of fat we’re adding to this. I wonder how it’ll be emulsified. The answer is vodka. So, the vodka is going to let those fats really blend in well. We’re going to cook the alcohol off, and it’s going to give you like a little bit of change of flavor, a little bit of acidity, but it’s also emulsifying things, and that changes how you taste. So, the consistency of anything will change how it goes onto your taste buds. And that’s one of the reasons that vodka sauce is so delicious. That and the parm and the fresh basil and the tomatoes. This is a kid-friendly recipe. all the alcohol will cook off or at least almost all of it. If you don’t have vodka and you don’t want to cook with it, you can replace it with chicken or vegetable stock and it’ll still be delicious. It just won’t be a traditional vodka sauce. A traditional from the 1970s vodka sauce. Once everything’s melty and sizzling, we’re going to add the onions in. Give this a stir. And we’re going to cook this until it’s slightly softened. It’ll be about 6 minutes. Just make sure you stir occasionally so nothing burns. By the way, if you like my videos, go ahead and hit that subscribe button. There’s two new recipes and shorts every single week. Those are looking softened and more translucent. So, grab your garlic press or your already minced garlic and go to town. This isn’t related to the recipe, but in case you’re wondering, you can also use a garlic press for ginger. I don’t know what it is, but mincing ginger can kind of annoy me. Just takes a little bit of time, and I’m in a hurry. So, you can use a garlic press on some very roughly chopped chunks of ginger and you’ll get like nice ginger juice and a little bit of just like a little bit of pulp coming out. We’re going to cook this for an additional minute before we add our tomato paste in. Fragrant, delicious, but not burned. Now, it’s time for two tablespoons of tomato paste. One. Two. Perfect. Give this a good mix. We’re going to cook this while stirring for 2 to 3 minutes. You’ll see a change of color. It’ll be all deliciously mixed in. This smells so good right now. It’s crazy. The tomato paste really has like just that lovely concentrated pure tomato flavor. So, it adds a lot. Now, it’s time for a third of a cup of vodka. Give that a good stir and use your wooden spoon to catch any of the brown bits at the bottom of your pan. I’m going to reduce this to a simmer right now and let it simmer away for about 3 minutes until the vodka’s cooked off. This recipe only has a few ingredients. You really taste everything that’s in there. So, try and use like a really nice tomato paste, the best canned tomatoes that you can find. And if you do those simple things, this vodka sauce will be so delicious. Okay, the vodka cooked down. We’re going to add one 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes as well as one teaspoon of salt. Use your wooden spoon to cut each of these tomatoes in half. Once your tomatoes are broken in half, this is at a simmer for about 10 minutes until it’s slightly reduced. You want to remove any of the excess liquid from these canned tomatoes. So, the vodka sauce is not watery, but it is full of flavor. Don’t worry if this hasn’t broken down yet because we’re going to blend it. Just stir occasionally. It’s been 10 minutes, so take this off heat and grab a blender or an immersion blender if you prefer. Super hot, so be careful. Use a ladle and a trivet. And as you can see in the background, I have some water coming to a boil that’s been well salted. And I’m just making a batch of pasta for this. If you’re making this for pasta, now is a good time to start it. Otherwise, disregard. Carefully ladle this into your blender. Cover this up. Remove the center vent. If you don’t do that, this could just explode off, which is not fun. Now, grab a paper towel just to prevent any crazy splatters. And we’re going to blend this for 30 seconds on medium low until it’s almost smooth. Pour this back into the pan. Before I pop that on heat, if you’re making pasta for this, go ahead and pop that in. Right now, our sauce is going to go back on heat, medium low. This tastes delicious, but we need some balance. We need some freshness. Half a cup of heavy cream will do just that. Stir the cream in. Once your cream is fully mixed in, you want this to come to a low simmer, so just wait for those first bubbles to appear. It’s bubbling up, let’s add our parm. Don’t forget your chopped basil. Give that a stir to get it started. For a little bit of heat, I’m adding about an 1/8 of a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes. You can add more if you want to be spicier. And 1/4 teaspoon of cracked black pepper. Stir your vodka sauce until all the cheese is melted and then it’ll be ready. Your vodka sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days or you can freeze it for up to 3 months. This consistency looks perfect to me, but if your vodka sauce is going to be for pasta, it might get a little bit too thick just because the pasta will absorb water from the sauce. If that’s the case, you can add 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water in. Stir it up and it’ll be nice and silky. The cheese is all melted. I’m taking this off heat. Transfer your vodka sauce to an airtight container if you’re storing it or use as desired. And just like that, it’s ready to enjoy. Creamy, flavorpacked, smooth, and so delicious. I hope you had a chance to make this sauce. And if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button and check out my pasta