Penne with a kick
A CLASSIC dish of penne alla vodka gets a nutritional boost from frozen spinach, which keeps the dish pantryfriendly. Cookbook author Julia Turshen turns to this recipe when she wants something as easy as pasta with tomato sauce, but with a bit more excitement. If you’d prefer to make this without alcohol, just leave out the vodka.
PENNE WITH VODKA SAUCE AND SPINACH Servings: Total time: Storage:
What you need
4-6 (makes 9 cups) 45 minutes Refrigerate for up to 4 days.
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced or finely grated ¼ cup tomato paste
¼ cup vodka
780g can crushed tomatoes
1 cup heavy cream
Fine salt
500g penne (or any short pasta) 285g frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry Grated Parmesan or pecorino Romano cheese, for serving
How to make it
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm the oil until shimmering. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook, stirring, until incredibly fragrant and the tomato paste has darkened slightly in colour, about 2 minutes. Add the vodka and bring the mixture to a boil.
Let it boil vigorously to cook off the harshness of the vodka, less than 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes and heavy cream, reduce the heat to low and season to taste with salt.
Cover the saucepan to prevent splattering, and let the sauce simmer while you cook the pasta.
Generously salt the boiling water, add the pasta and cook it for 2 minutes less than the package instructions for al dente. (It finishes cooking in the sauce.) Transfer 1 cup of the pasta cooking water to the sauce mixture, then drain the pasta and return it to the now-empty pot. Pour the vodka sauce over the pasta and add the spinach. Turn the heat to low and cook, stirring to combine the pasta with the sauce and spinach, until the pasta is al dente and has absorbed some of the sauce, and the spinach is warmed through, about 2 minutes.
Divide among bowls, top with cheese and serve hot.
Substitutions: Gluten-free?
Use your favourite
gluten-free pasta.
Vegan? Use unsweetened nondairy creamer in place of the heavy cream, and add ¼ cup nutritional yeast to the sauce instead of cheese.
Instead of spinach, swop in frozen kale or frozen peas.
Can’t have alcohol? Leave out the vodka. |