I LOVE this pasta with Vodka Sauce Recipe so much! It takes less than 30 minutes to whip up, with just a handful of basic ingredients! It’s a favorite in my household and on regular dinner rotation! It’s the best dinner to whip up on busy weeknights, when you want to get a delicious dinner on the table with minimal effort.
What Does Vodka Sauce Taste Like?
Our homemade vodka sauce has a bright, creamy, slightly acidic and subtly peppery flavor.
Purpose of Vodka in Vodka Sauce
The vodka helps to balance out the tomato paste and heavy cream in the sauce. It creates a subtle, peppery heat and almost herbaceous brightness to the sauce.
How to Make Our Vodka Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
Process
- First cook pasta in a large pot of well salted water to al dente doneness.
- Drain pasta, reserving some of the pasta water. You’ll add this to the sauce.
- Place a skillet over medium heat and sauté shallots and garlic in some oil.
- Add tomato paste and stir together. You want the tomato paste to turn a deep red color.
- Deglaze pan with vodka and stir together for a few minutes.
- Stir in reserved pasta water and simmer sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir in cream and simmer for a few minutes.
- Stir in grated Parmesan and butter until sauce is smooth and slightly thickened.
- Add cooked pasta and toss together until well coated.
- Top with more Parmesan and serve!
Tools You Will Need
The Best Pasta to Pair with Our Vodka Sauce
Shaped Pasta
I like using a shaped pasta for this dish, specifically rotini, because I like how the small spirals pick up the sauce so well. Other great options are:
- penne
- bow tie
- cavatappi
- gemelli
- campanelle
- radiatori
Strand Pasta
If shaped pastas aren’t your favorite, I highly recommend fusilli col buco which is a great strand pasta that also picks up the sauce really well! Other great options are:
- bucatini
- mafalda
- tagliatelle
- capellini
- linguine
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions
Make Ahead
The pasta can be cooked and stored in an airtight container up to 3 days ahead of time. The sauce can be made up to 5 days ahead of time and also stored in an airtight container (separate from the sauce) until ready to use.
When ready to serve, pour sauce into a large saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 10 minutes. Stir pasta into sauce and continue to simmer for an additional 5 minutes until pasta has heated through. Serve.
Freezing
The pasta can be made, stored in an airtight container and frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw completely in refrigerator and stir into heated sauce until completely heated through.
To freeze sauce ahead of time, make sauce until it’s time to add cream. Cool completely, then store partially made sauce in an airtight container for up to 3 months. When ready to serve, thaw sauce in refrigerator. Heat sauce in a saucepan until heated through, then stir in cream and simmer. Adjust seasonings before adding pasta and tossing together. Simmer until heated through and serve.
Variations for Our Vodka Sauce
- Get veggies into the sauce! Some of our favorites are spinach, kale, broccoli, and asparagus.
- Add protein! Precooked shredded or chopped chicken is one of our favorite things to add to the sauce.
- Garbanzo or white beans can also be added for a vegetarian friendly protein.
- Add herbs! I love adding some torn basil or thinly sliced chives to the sauce to change things up.
- Add heat by stirring some crushed red pepper flakes into the dish.
- Make a vodka free option! That’s right this sauce can be made sans alcohol. Water with a squeeze of lemon juice can replace the vodka. It won’t give you quite the same peppery flavor, but it will help to bring out the acidity in the tomato paste.
More Pasta Recipes You Will Love
Want a yummy salad to pair with our vodka sauce recipe? We’ve got you covered:
The Best Vodka Sauce Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 8 oz dry rotini (or pasta shape of choice)
vodka sauce
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large shallot minced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ⅔ cup tomato paste
- 3 tbsp vodka
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- salt and pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
- Fill a large pot with water, place over high heat and bring to a boil. Add a small handful salt to water and add pasta.
- Cook pasta, stirring occasionally, until al dente, 6 to 8 minutes.
- Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water, and set both aside.
- Place a large skillet over medium heat. Once skillet is hot add oil and sauté shallots and garlic for 3 to 4 minutes, or until aromatics begin to slightly caramelize.
- Add tomato paste and stir together. Continue to stir until paste turns bright red,2 to 3 minutes.
- Deglaze skillet with vodka and stir together until vodka evaporates. Add reserved pasta water to skillet and stir together until smooth, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir cream into sauce until mixture is smooth. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer together, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in butter and Parmesan and continue to simmer until sauce is smooth, glossy and has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 3 minutes.
- Add cooked pasta to sauce and toss together until fully coated. Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve with more grated Parmesan and black pepper.
NOTES
When ready to serve, pour sauce into a large saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 10 minutes. Stir pasta into sauce and continue to simmer for an additional 5 minutes until pasta has heated through. Serve. Freeze Ahead: The pasta can be made, stored in an airtight container and frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw completely in refrigerator and stir into heated sauce until completely heated through.
To freeze sauce ahead of time, make sauce until it’s time to add cream. Cool completely, then store partially made sauce in an airtight container for up to 3 months. When ready to serve, thaw sauce in refrigerator. Heat sauce in a saucepan until heated through, then stir in cream and simmer. Adjust seasonings before adding pasta and tossing together. Simmer until heated through and serve.
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Subbed cottage cheese for heavy cream for higher protein content & changed the texture (expected) but still so yummy
Add a scoop of burrata in the middle when serving…plus some red pepper flakes and a little fresh basil on top…perfection
Easy to make and my family loves it!
This vodka sauce is AMAZING!!! The flavors in this dish are so yummy!!! This was my first time trying vodka sauce and this is definitely a winner!
Followed as written and just added some crushed red pepper flake when sauteing the garlic. Soooo good and a very smooth, flavorful sauce.
I made exactly to recipe as written. . Next time I would decrease tomato paste to q e half cup, and increase water to almost one cup.. added some Italian seasoning and a pinch of crushed red peppero. Threw in some cooked shrimp. Yum. Hubby liked it
This is utterly the most brilliant vodka sauce I’ve ever made.
The flavour was ok but I’m not sure what I did that turned this sauce into a grainy mess. I followed the recipe and I think I added the cream while it was too hot, then I was worried it would separate more and so took it off the heat and then the cheese didn’t melt properly. It ended up kind of runny as well. If I made it again I’d take it off the heat, then add the cheese, then the cream last and maybe less pasta water.
Sounds like your fault not the recipe
If making a large batch of 12 servings (4x the set serving amount) do you need to quadruple the amount of pasta water as well? (1/2 a cup into 2 cups)
I’ve never quadrupled the recipe but i would save 1 1/2 cups of pasta water, add 3/4 cup first, then an additional 1/4 cup at a time as needed. Hope you enjoy!
I don’t typically post reviews but, this recipe really is the best and easy. My family loves it and requests it often. They compare it to our favorite restaurants and still like this recipe more! I wouldn’t change a thing except maybe double it🙂
My husband and I make vodka sauce very often, and we ALWAYS use this recipe— it’s the best!
Hi ! I am making the sauce a day ahead of serving but not making the pasta till the next day – can I add the pasta water after the sauce is made and is being reheated ??
Yes!
This one’s actually insane, I generally only flllow a recipe once before it becomes winging it, so I generally may rate but not usually go in much further on recipes. This one was INSANE. I’m looking to edit it down a bit calorically but as the recipe stands, I’d be genuinely embarrassed to eat with other people due to the involuntary sounds
I’ve made this recipe many times and always come back to it! Question though, are the nutrition facts the total numbers for all 3 servings combined, or is each serving really 861 calories?
This was great!
1st time making vodka sauce & will use recipe again & again! Reminded me of vodka pasta on a cruise that I loved! Easy too.
Did a quick search for vodka sauce (pasta was already boiling!) this came up and I made it….it is EXCELLENT, will be making it again!!
I’m looking to make this with cauliflower gnocchi but then wouldn’t have the reserved pasta water… would the recipe be okay without that?
I should still be okay, but i would add a small splash of warm water or even a splash of a mild flavored chicken/vegetable stock to help smooth the sauce out.
I was pretty skeptical with the “best” descriptor in the title but this recipe shut me up. Just terrific. This will easily become a weekly favorite. I ended up using a red onion because that is all I had at the time…. I will try shallots next time but this was so good I can’t imagine it will get better.
Easy to follow and prepare. The only addition to the sauce I made was to add fresh parsley. I served with shrimp and linguini. It was fantastic!