Penne a la Vodka Receipe

So, years ago, when Garret and I first moved to Brooklyn, we lived in a "small town" within Brooklyn called Bay Ridge.  Brooklyn has many neighborhoods within it, and Bay Ridge has a very tucked away feeling.  It has streets with brownstones and avenues with shops, restaurant, bakeries, and meat markets.  It also has parks and baseball fields and rows of normal houses with yards.  It really does feel like a secret little small town within the greater space of Brooklyn.  And parts of it - certain streets, corners, and shops - almost feel frozen in time.  I'd go for walks in the morning there and at certain points within my walk, I could have been 2010 me, or I easily could have instead been a much more stylish 1960's version of myself, headed to my job at Sterling Cooper.

[P.S. I am obsessed with Peggy Olsen (the character) and she (the character) is from Bay Ridge!]

Anyway, on the corner near our house was this very frozen-in-time catering place:

This picture is weird because I did Google Street View to find it
and then took a screen cap. HEY, technology!

I have no idea what the story is with it (but trust me, I made up plenty).  Nobody ever went in and nobody ever came out.  There were usually garbage bags out front as pictured above.  Most of the time, it just sat there and let my imagination run wild, inventing all sorts of [creepy] scenarios for what could be going on inside.  But sometimes - like, three times a year - the most delicious smells would emanate from this place.

One crisp fall day I could smell penne a la vodka being cooked.  I'd never actually eaten penne a la vodka, but I'd seen/smelled it plenty and I knew it was delicious.  So I became obsessed with eating it and looked up a recipe and made it.

Delicious.

I made that recipe for a while, but this was years ago and I lost track of it.  The last few times I've wanted to make it I've spent fifteen minutes or so scouring the internet for the recipe, and I haven't been able to find it.  So, I've come up with my own version, which I thought I'd share!

Penne a la Vodka Recipe

You will need: 
-  2 cans of crushed tomatoes
-  1 can of tomato paste
-  1 can of tomato sauce
-  1 vidalia (sweet) onion
-  5 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced (pressed gives you more flavor!)
-  salt and pepper to taste
-  5 or 6 fresh basil leaves
-  3 oz of vodka
-  3/4 a cup of heavy cream
-  1/2 a stick of butter (oh, by the way - this sauce isn't exactly healthy)
-  1 box of Penne

Here's What to Do: 

I should say that this recipe takes a while: 3-4 hours from start to finish.  So it's not great for a weeknight dinner, but it is perfect for one of those cold winter days when you just want to stay in the house and be embraced by delicious smells.

So, first slice your onion so that you have a lot of thin onion rings.  Throw a bit of olive oil in a pan and cook the onions over medium/medium-low head (depending on your stove).  Cook them for about ten minutes, until they begin to become translucent.

Add your garlic to the pan and cook it for a minute or so, until the scent of the garlic is released into the air.  Turn the heat down to low.

Now add your tomato products - two cans of crushed tomatoes, one can of tomato paste, and one can of tomato sauce.  Stir it all up and let the mixture get warm.

When your sauce is reaching the "warm" point, rip up your basil leaves and stir them into the pot.  Use salt and pepper to season the sauce now, too.

Now you're going to simmer the sauce for a long time.  Like, three hours.  Stir it every thirty minutes or so and if it's starting to bubble, turn it lower.  For me, the last hour is usually spent cooking on the lowest setting possible.

Once the sauce has been cooking for three hours, you have about an hour to go.  Now is the time to stir your vodka in so that it has time to cook off.

Let the sauce with the vodka cook for 45 minutes.  Next you're going to cube your butter and throw that in, stirring it up.  The sauce will get a shimmer to it once the butter is added.

Once the butter is stirred in, it's time to add your cream.  Stir it in - this is what gives the sauce its signature orangeish pink look.

While that's cooking together (twelve minutes or so) cook up your pasta according to the package directions.

Enjoy!

Ripped up basil in the sauce.