Five Minute Vodka Sauce
Posted by The Kitchen Chemist on Saturday, 13 September 2008
At present, I’m the thick of working on my dissertation. Additionally, I’m preparing for another conference I’ll be presenting at soon, which means that I until the conference, I’ll be scrambling around the laboratory trying to get as much data as possible. I’m starting to understand the saying that an organic professor taught me some years ago:
The final state of graduate school is panic. At this point, you wonder why first year graduate students don’t know anything and why do they insist on asking you all of these questions. Additionally, you’ve got the stress of trying to finish your dissertation, all while you look for a job. At this point, you want to tell the world, “GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE, I’VE GOT ENOUGH ON MY PLATE!”
Right, so I’m not panicky… yet.
Thus, things like my five minute vodka sauce make my life easier. It allows me to make something very tasty very quickly and without much brain power (especially when I’m putting in 10-12 hours at the lab daily). Thus without further ado….
Ingredients
- 3/4 of a small container of tomato paste
- 1 heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup of Vodka (I prefer Absolut)
- 2/3 cup of Fat Free Half & Half (or regular, or even heavy whipping cream)
Instructions
Combine olive oil and garlic in a small sauce pan on medium-high heat. Once the garlic starts to brown, add the tomato paste and stir together to thoroughly mix, and to prevent burning. After the mixture is combined, add the vodka and the basil, constantly stirring. At this point, you want to up the heat a bit more since the alcohol needs to cook off, and stirring it constantly will help ensure that the alcohol is all cooked off. After about a minute, add the fat free half and half, salt and pepper. Continue to stir and allow the mixture to come to a minor boil and then lower heat to low or turn off depending on the state of your pasta you’re cooking with this.
I served this vodka sauce with gnocchi, since gnocchi are a hardy enough pasta to be able to handle a sauce like this — which isn’t very thick, but has a robust taste to it.
