I promised you variations on penne all’arrabiata, and I’m here to fulfill on at least one of those. Easily the most well-known of them is penne alla vodka. Now, this is not some ancient tradition in Italian cooking. I mentioned that there are three main spin-offs of the arrabiata dish, all’infuriata, alla vodka, and alla moscovita, and that they didn’t come on the scene until the 1970s or 80s. The first, infuriata, I’m not going to present, because it’s literally just the arrabiata recipe with the addition of deglazing the pan with a shot of vodka after the step of cooking the onions, garlic, and chilies, and before adding the tomato paste.

But that version was adapted into the alla vodka dish that we’ve come to know and love, with the intent to mellow out the somewhat harsh flavor that the infuriata one tended to produce. There are lots of stories about how it came about, the likelihood is that none of them is really accurate. What we do know is that the idea of blending tomato, cream, and vodka took off like a rocket across Italy, though particularly in the fine dining spots of Milan, where chefs vied to produce one or another outlandish variation on it with wildly varied ingredients. From there it leapt to other countries and cities of gastronomy, finding a niche home in London, New York, and more. The pinnacle, some say, was the third one listed above, the moscovita, which involves smoked salmon and oscetra caviar. But today, let’s go with the sort of core recipe for alla vodka, and feel free to make your own variation.

Obviously we need our penne pasta, along with tomatoes, vodka, peas, well-smoked bacon (some go for guanciale or prosciutto), onion (some use garlic too, I learned it without, but no reason not to, because, well, garlic), cream, and tomato paste. Some would substitute tomato passata for the fresh tomatoes, but I say nay, I like the bits of tomato. Oh, and the vodka, classically, must be Polish rye vodka – though that probably comes because a big push for the dish back in the early 80s was made by a Polish vodka distributor in Italy. I forgot to put the chilies on the board in the first photo, so there they are in the second.

Dice and saute the bacon and onions in a bit of olive oil. This is also where I’d usually put in the chilies, but as noted, I forgot to put them on the board and remembered them a few minutes in when I was thinking something doesn’t look quite right. When softened and nicely golden…

… add in about a quarter to a third cup of the vodka. If you’re using a gas stove, like mine, remove the pan from the flame before pouring it in, and then return it to the heat. It will burst into flame… be prepared. It only lasts a few seconds. If you’re using an electric or induction burner, you’ll have to light it on fire yourself with a match, lighter, or something – just be careful.

Once the flames die down, cook it a minute or two more to let the liquid evaporate and absorb and then add a tablespoon or two of tomato paste.

Cook that down until thick.

Add your diced tomatoes, and, if you’ve forgotten to add the chilies earlier on and just remembered them add them in too. Actually, I kind of like adding them at this point as they retained more of their heat and freshness than if they’d cooked down slowly with the onions and bacon. I might just do that in the future, because we liked the extra heat. Around now is a good point to put your pasta into boiling salted water – figuring it will take about eight minutes until you’re ready to add it to the sauce to finish cooking.

Cook that down until thick and the tomatoes have given up their liquid. Then add a ladle of the pasta water.

Add your peas and a good dollop of the cream. Now, part of the idea of the vodka, in addition to the sharp flavor it imparts, is it helps prevent the cream from curdling when it joins the acidic tomatoes. Something about the interaction of alcohol, dairy, and acid. I guess that’s likely part of what’s behind adding some wine to tomatoes and milk in a classic bolognese sauce.

Continue to cook this while your pasta cooks. Add pasta water if it starts to dry out.

When the penne is about two minutes shy of fully cooked, add it to the sauce and continue cooking, tossing and stirring to coat and keep the pasta in some amount of liquid. You may need to add a ladle or two of pasta water to help emulsify and also finish cooking the pasta.

And, ye shall be rewarded with a creamy, rich sauce coating everything. Feel free to toss in some chopped parsley if you like. Given that there’s cream in this, many people don’t add cheese at this point, but if you do, some good pecorino romano or parmigiano would be perfect.

And… serve! Enjoy to the last bits of sauce, as shown in the cover photo.

I’m unlikely to splurge on a tin of oscetra caviar, so I will likely leave you with just this one variation. But if you were to make the alla moscovita, basically, you add in slivers of smoked salmon at the end, when you add the pasta to the sauce, and the caviar is used as a decorative garnish, a nice scoop of it atop the plate.

Where shall we go next on our pasta journey? Any requests from the audience?