Pasta alla vodka is a beloved Italian-American classic. This version of pasta alla vodka with spicy sausage gets amped up with spicy homemade Italian sausage crumbles.
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Summary:
- Use a curly or tubular pasta shape for this recipe to help this sauce cling to the pasta. If you can, use bronze-cut pasta, which you’ll notice at the grocery store for its lighter color and textural irregularities. You can find the pasta I used for this recipe, fusilli col buco, at Italian markets or on Amazon.
- No, you don’t have to use vodka, and no, you don’t absolutely need double-concentrated tomato paste. However, vodka will add a nice bite and tang, and double-concentrated tomato paste packs a delicious tomato-y punch.
Pasta alla vodka with spicy sausage is perfect for relaxed get-togethers and easy enough for weeknight dinners.
With a big green salad and a bottle of wine, this is peak dinner. Pasta alla vodka is typically prepared using penne, hence why this is dish is also very commonly referred to as penne alla vodka. It has leapt in popularity in the last several years, thanks to beloved restaurants like Jon and Vinny’s and several well-known food media outlets celebrating this dish.
And for good reason! Pasta alla vodka calls for a few simple (and cheap!) ingredients like tomato paste, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, garlic, shallots, and red chili flakes. If you’re like me, you can probably open your fridge and find at least 6/7 of these ingredients bouncing around at any given time. Pull out your favorite pasta shape and dinner’s halfway done.
Pasta alla vodka calls for a few simple (and cheap!) ingredients like tomato paste, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, garlic, shallots, and red chili flakes.
What pasta shape for pasta alla vodka?
I will never say no to penne, fusilli, or rigatoni alla vodka. This time around, we’re getting a little fancy with some long fusilli: fusilli col buco. You can find these in Italian markets, if you have one near you. Sometimes, you’ll get lucky and find them in the specialty pasta section in your local grocery store, but you can also easily order them on Amazon.
What we’re going for here is a pasta shape that will most effectively capture as much of this dreamy sauce as possible. Tubular pasta (with ridges, ideally) clings to this sauce well and holds extra through the middle, too. Curly pasta has nooks and crannies, obviously, which act as little canals for the sauce.
Ideally, look for the highest-quality dried pasta you can find. I prefer bronze-cut pasta, which is a fancy way of saying that the pasta was extruded through and shaped by bronze dies, which is a fancy way of saying that this type of pasta will be rougher and more porous. Thus, your sauce will cling to your pasta better, and your life will just be better.
Most pastas you’ll find in your grocery store will be Teflon-cut pasta, which is cheaper to produce than pasta cut with bronze dies. Teflon-cut boxed pasta will have that classic American golden yellow color and perfectly smooth surface. No, thank you! Look for the pasta that’s lighter in color and looks like it’s almost covered in a little bit of flour. You’ll know it when you see it, probably because it’ll be like, a dollar more. It will be worth it.
How to make pasta alla vodka with spicy sausage
- Make the spicy sausage: combine ground pork (or plant-based meat) with salt, red chili flakes, fennel seeds, smoked paprika, garlic powder and oregano. This is a classic spicy Italian sausage, and you can adjust the heat to your liking. I added about an extra 1/2 teaspoon of red chili flakes to mine. Mix until thoroughly combined, and shape into loose meatballs about 30g in weight or 1 1/2 inches thick. Cook the meatballs over medium-high heat and flip halfway, then use your spatula to crumble. Feel free to mix and match spices depending on what you have, too. Black pepper, dried sage, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and even a bit of brown sugar are delicious here. You can make the sausage crumble a day ahead of time, if you like.
- Cook the pasta: bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package instructions until al dente. Make the vodka sauce while the pasta cooks.
- Meanwhile, make the vodka sauce: finely chop a large shallot and as much garlic as your heart wants. I called for 4-6 cloves for this recipe and I used 6. Sweat these out over medium-low heat, then add the double-concentrated tomato paste. Cook this down for 5-7 minutes, until it’s a dark brick-red color. Add a splash of vodka to deglaze and let it cook down for about a minute. (Yes, you can skip this step, but the vodka does add a nice bite and acidity in this recipe.) Scoop out about 1/4 cup of pasta water from your boiling pasta in a heatproof glass measuring cup, and into it, add 3/4 of a cup of heavy cream. (I learned this trick from Claire Saffitz. It will bring up the temperature of the heavy cream so that it doesn’t split when you add it to the pan.) Add this mixture to the pan and whisk until you have a creamy, dreamy sauce.
- Combine: Add your al dente pasta into the sauce along with the crumbled sausage and a bit of parmesan. Salt to taste. And don’t throw out the pasta water! You can use it to thin out the sauce just before serving, as it will thicken the longer it sits. Serve with extra parmesan, and maybe some chopped basil, if you feel like it. (You feel like it.)
Pasta alla vodka with spicy sausage comes together in about 45 minutes, including prep time. Make the sausage a day ahead to save time! This makes for an easy weeknight dinner, or you can dress it up with a big salad and a few bottles of wine for a simple get-together.
Variations
- Make this vegetarian by using plant-based meat like Beyond Meat. If you’re vegan, do the same, but substitute full-fat coconut cream for the heavy cream, and use a vegan parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast!
- I wouldn’t recommend using milk in this recipe. Half-and-half will work in a pinch, but since it is much thinner the end result will reflect that.
- You can use regular tomato paste instead of double-concentrated tomato paste. Using double-concentrated tomato paste provides a richer tomato flavor.