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Hummus: Quick and Easy
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The First Experiment: Chickpea Cookies.
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Do you ever think to yourself, “Man, I have an awful lot of vodka, what can I do with it other than drink it?” No? Well, now you will.
This recipe reminds me of my sister in law who died a few years ago. She loved vodka sauce. In fact when I was pregnant with my oldest child the restaurant where the shower was held served penne with vodka sauce as the first course and my sister-in-law loved it so much we had to return to that restaurant for every family occasion over the next couple of years until finally I asked, “Can’t we just make this at home and skip the two hour drive to the restaurant?”
Turns out we could and we did. It is an easy recipe that I love to pull out when I want to make something that seems a bit more fancy but have zero time or ambition. Also, I promise she did not die from my cooking.
You will need:
2 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped
28 ounce can canned peeled and diced tomatoes
1 cup heavy whipping cream (half n half, or rice milk, almond milk, unflavored soy milk for those allergic)
1/4 cup vodka
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound pasta (penne, rotini)
grated Parmesan cheese
Chop up the onion. Do you have one of these Pampered Chef chopper things? I love it.
So easy, even a toddler can do it! And usually does.
Dump the onions and 2 T butter into a large skillet.
Saute for 8 minutes, ideally until the onions turn transparent. But I say until you get bored .
Add tomatoes and cook for 25 minutes or so on medium-low so that it thickens up a bit. Stir frequently.
While this is going on put your pasta water on to boil.
Cook the pasta until al dente, which means NOT mushy. For the love of all things holy, NOT mushy. I beg you.
Measure your cream, vodka, and red pepper flakes right into the measuring cup. One less thing to wash.
After measuring I dump it into my palm and crush the flakes up to release their flavor.
Just make sure you wash your hands afterward.
Turn the heat back up and add cream, vodka and red pepper flakes; boil for 2 minutes or until thickened. You also want it to boil this long to cook off the alcohol.
This should coincide nicely with the pasta being fully cooked.
Spoon the sauce over the pasta.
Sprinkle some freshly grated cheese on the top.
Enjoy.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
But why would I NOT want to drink the vodka? I mean…I’m here all day with these children arguing and then my husband comes home and leaves his STUFF all over the place and well, the vodka makes me happy. I’m sorry, but it just does.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
i am SUCH a fan of vodka sauce! i keep trying to buy it in jars and it just isnt as good (i know, i know!)
I have never really made sauce from scratch! very exciting! do the peppers make it spicy? my hubby claims to not like spicy but then is ok if it does not overshadow yummy flavor…(basically not a fan of only tasting burned tongue)
April 9th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
wow. YUMMY. This sounds so good that I’m tempted to go out right now and buy more vodka to make this.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I’ve made this too and it was very good. However the recipe I used came from the Food Network, so needless to say there was a bit more vodka involved! Yours looks delicious!
April 9th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
This looks delicious and easy. I am making this for my family this weekend! Thanks for sharing.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Ah ha! Something to do with all that extra vodka! (I must run out and buy some more now…)
I love the pictures you post with your recipes!
April 9th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I have all the ingredients except the vodka. Wonder if beer would work…ha.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Um, your bottle of Vodka appears to be half empty…hmmm…
April 9th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Can’t wait to try this. Looks yummy!! Will have to get some vodka that is not flavored first though. I am thinking vanilla, cherry or strawberry vodka would not work. Haha. Thanks for the recipe!
April 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I think I may have to get one of those Pampered Chef chopper thingys, since you have mentioned it more than once…
April 9th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
This is one of my fav. restaurant meals so I can’t wait to make it at home. I just tried your lemon/bean/potato chicken 1-dish recipe and it was a HIT!
April 9th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
*spoken in the tone of the repair lady in Mr Mom commenting on feeding chili to a baby*
You put Grey Goose in a SPAGHETTI SAUCE????
April 9th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
This looks great, Chris- I just wanted to thank you for all these great recipes you’ve been posting- I’ve made five of them in the last 2-3 weeks and they’ve all been delicious! I love using natural ingredients and we avoid processed food, so it’s been so nice to have a resouce for quick, family-friendly meals that fit in with the way we eat. You got me to drag out my crockpot for the first time since our wedding- I’ve been so discouraged by crockpot recipes that call for cans of soup and other pre-made yuckies. Please, keep it up!
April 9th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I love vodka.
we (well, me and some people I no longer associate with. this story has nothing to do with that however) once played soccer with a half-full vodka bottle. those things can really fly (the plastic bottles. duh.)–and although it sounds kind of weird now that I am typing about it, this is truly a hysterical game.
trust me.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:20 am
I made it this evening. I thought it was really good but needed a little salt. Somehow I missed that you said “salt and pepper to taste.”
My only other problem was that I have a husband that doesn’t believe in “pasta” spaghetti yes but pasta ……not so much. He just doesn’t get it. ( He is an old f**t)
What they say about old dogs and new tricks is true.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
potentially stupid question so I apologize in advance..
I’m 29 weeks preggo and I’ve never cooked with alcohol before. This won’t affect the princess currently sucking the life out of me from the inside will it?
And how would you approach purchasing said vodka in this condition? I should send the man right? I don’t want to be dragged to jail or something for trying to give my baby FAS….
April 13th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Laura K, don’t know if you’re still checking back, but cooking with alcohol should be just fine. First of all, there’s so little alcohol to begin with (1/4 cup divided over probably at least 6 servings?) that it shouldn’t cause any problem. Secondly, you boil the alcohol. Ethanol has a much lower boiling point that water (Unnecessary Chemistry Teacher sidebar: due to weaker intermolecular forces) so once you’ve boiled the sauce for 2 minutes most (although admittedly not *all*) of that alcohol is gone. I’ve fed a slightly different version of this sauce (started with frying pancetta - yum!) to my kids from the time they could eat solids.
As far as buying it, yeah, I’d probably send in the man. Although here we’ve got drive-thru liquor stores so it wouldn’t be a problem…
June 17th, 2008 at 1:26 am
[...] of the meals on my list to try ASAP include the Pasta with Tomato Vodka Sauce, the Black Bean & Beef Burritos, and the [...]