The Real King of Pantry Pasta (Pasta alla Vodka)

🔪MY GEAR:

-- RECIPE --
▪20g 5-6 cloves garlic, minced/pressed
▪75g or 3-4 shallots, minced
▪30-40g or 1Tbsp canned calabrian chile, chopped
▪Olive oil
▪salt
▪2-3g or 1.5tsp chile flake
▪170g or 1 small can tomato paste
▪100mL or just under 1/2c vodka (sub in white wine if you don’t have vodka on hand)
▪350g or 1.5c heavy cream (if you don’t have cream on hand, use evaporated milk + additional butter and parmesan)
▪60-100g/2-4oz pasta water or hot water
▪1lb/.5kg fusilli or pasta of choice
▪75g or 5Tbsp butter
▪50-75g or 1.5c grated aged parmesan

Bring large pot of water to a boil. Preheat large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium.

Add 40g or 1/4c olive oil to the heavy bottomed pot over medium, followed by shallots, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Stir and sweat for 1-2 minutes. When translucent, add chile flake and calabrian chiles. Stir to bloom for about a minute. Add tomato paste, stir and fry off raw flavor for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add vodka. Stir and cook off alcohol. Once thickened and vodka has mostly evaporated, add cream. Reduce heat to low and stir in hot water.

When pot of water is boiling, add two large handfuls of salt followed by pasta. Stir and cook to al dente, somewhere around 8-10min. When done, drain water from pasta, reserving 1-2 cups to adjust sauce consistency if needed.

Add drained pasta to vodka sauce, followed by butter and around 1/2c or 120g pasta cooking liquid. Gently stir to melt butter and combine. Once butter is melted in, add an additional 1/2c pasta cooking liquid followed by parm. Remove from heat and stir to combine. If needed, adjust sauce consistency by adding more pasta water to thin it out or more cheese and/or butter to thicken sauce. Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed.

Plate up and garnish with a sprinkle of parm, black pepper, a sprinkle of chile flakes, a drizzle of olive oil, and fresh basil if you have it.

--
🎧MUSIC:

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:19 Prep
1:25 Making the vodka sauce
4:44 Boiling pasta
5:27 ButcherBox ad
6:27 Drain the pasta
6:51 Finishing the vodka sauce
7:54 Plate up
9:05 Let’s eat this thing

#pastavodka #pantrypasta #easypasta

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[mhkpt]

Love how you covered alternatives for almost every ingredient in the dish, and caveats and how to compensate for the switches. Thank for all the care you put into your videos, it completely comes across!

[internetshaquille]

❤ Thank you for the Barkley plug, king!!! 🥰

[devastaterx]

The great about this channel is it gets right to the point. No messing around. It's literally a cooking instruction channel with a personable host. If I want filler or nonsense along with cooking (fine), I go somewhere else but I find I'm here a lot and I learn a lot. 🍝🍝🍝🍝

[denys-p]

Yeah, that was one of most under-appreciated videos on your channel. It has one of best taste/effort ratios ever

[whysitthat]

I love how much all the FoodTubers respect and promote one another; I started watching you because Ragusea shouted you out, and it was awesome to see you shoutout Internet Shaq who I started watching around the same time!

[erikellis]

My go-to pantry pasta would be aglio e olio. EVOO, garlic, red pepper flakes, Parmesan, salt and pepper, lemon, parsley. All stuff I almost always have on hand.

I've made vodka sauce before. I'd never thought of it as a pantry sauce, but it totally is! Adding it to my quick-and-easy-and-delicious options list! I especially like your choice of fusilli! I'm definitely doing that next time.

[dimilton]

Prepared this recipe first time tonight. My brother was like, “Eh, I’ll eat some later.” He came into the kitchen to get some water, I offered a noodle, and he was like, “Ahhh, alright.” He had a bite, went to walk away, and he was like, “Dang it! I guess I’ll get some. It’s REALLY GOOD!” Needless to say, we loved the recipe!

[chriskwilas]

HI Brian, thanks as always. I literally go to the channel when I meal plan for the following week. Appreciate all the hard work you do to make us all better home cooks for our families.

[StuJones]

Oh man, I’m so glad you did an update to Pasta alla Vodka which has been an absolute banger in our house. Thanks for everything! Also I made your Shawarma chicken just last night. So good.

[MxBnuron]

well, in Italy the true king of the pantry pasta it's "pasta aglio, olio e peperoncino" (I would recommend to add some anchovies filllet to the original recipe for extra umami/richness).
it's super simple, but it's a true italian cousine masterpiece

[tunatunaleeks]

Made it tonight. The spicy peppers really do set it apart from a normal pretty good pasta sauce. I used bottle Hungarian wax peppers instead since I couldn’t find the same peppers you had. Turned out fantastic.

[dimilton]

Dude, I went to the store for heavy cream to try your creamy veg soup recipe, and forgot to get it! I was bummed, but I remembered your mac and cheese video, so I used evaporated milk instead. The butternut squash soup was fire!

[MrDe]

Another sub for the cream is coconut milk. This makes it fully shelf stable without the need to add additional fat. I prefer the flavor profile as well.

[JamanMosil]

This is a fantastic recipe. Your first version of this is the first time I ever cooked one of your recipes. Made it for a bunch of my friends one night, and it has now become the #1 requested meal of my friends - "make that pasta vodka dish again plz". I will confess I went a bit nuts with it and cooked up some spiced chicken sausage on the side and added that in just for fun.

Really glad you made an updated version of this and now I'm reminded I need to make this again soon! Rock on!

[Dolbee]

I blame your previous Vodka Pasta for a 10lb weight gain

[andrewmorin]

I've been making this recipe almost weekly ever since I discovered your first video, and it's always a huge hit with family and guests. My only qualm about the first video was the formatting, as it wasn't very conducive to actually making the dish...but this one is so good! Thanks for re-doing this one!

[erikellis]

Oh! Another go-to pantry pasta for me is cacio e pepe. Butter, Pecorino, Parmesan, salt, pepper. I don't always have Pecorino on hand, but if I do, this is and easy one to throw together. I usually pair it with spaghetti.

[doctor-goggles]

I didn't have shallots, but I had some green onions I had to use. I didn't have a full can of tomato paste, but I had about half a can from a few days ago I had to use. I didn't have Calabrian chiles, but I did have some jarred roasted red peppers I'd been meaning to use.

And you know what? It was the best pasta I've made in months. Pantry pasta is magic.

[pardefarmeaurx]

That looks good. I started doing 1 part vodka and 1 part white/red wine to a lot of dishes, and that combo produces a massive flavor bomb imo

[barlitone]

I made this tonight, and it is amazing. Now, give us some more recipes that use calabrian chili peppers, because I had to order those and they are *not* cheap.