Penne alla Vodka

By making this with the spicy pepper vodka we had leftover from the bloody mary's, I thought, at the time, it was a bold and daring experiment that would yield untold glory or total ruin. It was however, mediocre. I didn't realize that as the vodka cooked away it would take all of it's infused flavors with it leaving us with a sweet (and still very good) tomato sauce. Also, I have to thank John Graham, who let me borrow his negative scanner which brings us this image. The recipe came from my beloved


I found this book on half.com while looking for 1,000 Indian recipes. Both are hardcover and came out the same year, but this was about $3 with shipping and the other was $21 and I doubt 1,000 Indian Recipes was endorsed by Mario Batali.

The recipe I used was:

1/4 c. unsalted butter
1/4c. finely chopped red onion
1 28oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped, w
1/2 c. tomato puree saved from tomatoes
salt
1 Tbs. tomato paste
1/4 cup spicy pepper vodka
1 pound penne
1/2 cup grated parmesan

1,000 Italian Recipes called for a 1/2 cup of cream instead of the puree and no tomato paste. Keep in mind while I was making this I thought there would be a nice peppery bite to balance out all the sweet tomato-iness. The whole time I was eating it, I couldn't help but think about this capaldi recipe for a deconstruction of a tomato ravioli. I haven't been able to find agar agar (or Kanten) around, but once I do I'm totally gonna make that.