Amy's Spicy Vodka Sauce

Travel to Italy tonight with this fiery and creamy sauce that will warm you up and then cool you off!

Ingredients:

3-4 cloves of minced garlic

1 large spanish onion, chopped finely

4 tbsp of butter  

1 tsp of red dry chili flakes, or one small chopped fresh red fresno chili

1/2 cup of vodka

*1 tbsp of tomato paste

*1 can of San Marzano tomatoes, whole (they carry more flavour)

1 cup of heavy cream

Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

1/2 cup Parmesean Reggiano cheese, grated

1/4 cup fresh basil and/or flat leaf parsley, chopped

*If short on time, omit these ingredients and replace with your favourite marinara sauce (just be sure there is no sugar on the ingredient list, I’ve linked my favourite) and skip right to adding cream. This will reduce this recipe by 30-40 mins.

Directions:

In a large pot, over high heat melt butter until browned, be watchful so you don’t burn the butter. Add garlic and onion and turn heat down to medium. Stir frequently to prevent onions from burning or sticking, and carmelize the onions and garlic until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Add chili flakes and tomato paste and stir until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes over medium heat.  Turn heat up to high and wait for 2-3 minutes, then add vodka (should sizzle quite loud) to deglaze pan and stir to remove any sediment from bottom of pot. Reduce heat to low and add can of tomatoes, roughly breaking up pieces with your spoon. Cover, but stir frequently. Cook on low for 30-40 minutes.

When ready to eat, boil salty water for pasta (I recommend a hearty noodle for this sauce with ridges (rigate) to soak up this sauce like penne, rigatoni or farfelle rigate -- and always fresh pasta!) and cook pasta to instructions, if using fresh pasta, always cut down the recommended cooking time by half the instructions, in order to prevent gooey overcooked noodles. Ew!

Remove lid from sauce as noodles cook and slowly stir in heavy cream, season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.

As pasta cooks, reserve ¼ cup of the starchy cooking liquid and add to sauce (this will help the sauce stick to the noodles. Drain pasta and never rinse your pasta (ever!), and toss with half of your sauce, reserve the other half for topping pasta. Use the rest of the sauce to spoon over pasta on plate when serving. Garnish with a healthy amount of Parmesean, parsley and basil.

Pour a big glass of red wine and enjoy!