Penne alla Vodka with Lemon-Arugula Salad
675 cal · 23g protein · 80g carbs · 28g fat
Toddler tip: Leave the red pepper flakes out of the pot entirely and let the adults add them at the table — then her portion needs no changes at all. Cooked-down tomato paste turns sweet rather than sharp, and a creamy pink pasta is usually an easy sell. A little extra Parmesan grated over her bowl helps. Skip the salad for her or give her a few plain arugula leaves on the side; the dressed version is peppery.
Low-carb fork: Halve the penne and double the salad, or skip the pasta and spoon the sauce over roasted cauliflower or spaghetti squash. To lighten it further, use half-and-half in place of the heavy cream and lean on the starchy pasta water for body — the sauce still comes together, just less richly.
Ingredients
Vodka Cream Sauce
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 1 smallyellow onion, grated on the large holes of a box grater (not diced — see the step)
- 4 clovesgarlic, minced
- 4 oztomato paste (about ⅔ of a 6 oz can — refrigerate the rest, or freeze it in tablespoon blobs)
- ⅓ cupvodka
- ¾ cupheavy cream
- 1 cupParmesan, finely grated, added off the heat in three handfuls (plus more for the table)
- ¼ tspred pepper flakes — optional, and best added at the table so the toddler's portion stays mild
- to tastekosher salt, added at the very END — plus plenty for the pasta water
- ¼ cupfresh basil leaves, torn
Pasta
- 1 lbpenne — regular semolina, NOT whole wheat (whole wheat's bitterness fights a sweet tomato-cream sauce)
Lemon-Arugula Salad
- 5 ozarugula
- 2 tbsplemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 2 tbspolive oil
- to tastekosher salt and black pepper
- for toppingParmesan, shaved with a peeler
Instructions
1Put a large pot of well-salted water on to boil for the penne. A big pot takes 10-12 minutes to come up, so start it before anything else.
2Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium. Rather than dicing the onion, grate it on the large holes of a box grater straight into the pan — it dissolves completely into the sauce in 5-6 minutes, which no amount of fine dicing quite achieves, and it saves you the knife work on a night the toddler is underfoot. Cook until soft and translucent.
3Add the garlic and stir 1 minute, then add 4 oz of the tomato paste — about two-thirds of the can. Cook it 4-5 minutes, stirring and spreading it thin across the pan, until it darkens from bright red to deep brick and starts to smell sweet rather than sharp. This is the step that makes the sauce taste rich instead of raw, so do not rush it — and do not use the whole can. A full 6 oz against this much cream is what makes a vodka sauce taste aggressively of tomato; two-thirds plus the cream and pasta water lands creamy-pink and mellow, which is the point of the dish.
4Pour in ⅓ cup of the vodka and scrape the bottom of the pan. Simmer 4-5 minutes, until the pan is nearly dry and you can put your face over it without catching a sharp alcohol smell. Half a cup in three minutes does not get there, and what is left reads boozy in the finished sauce. (The vodka is here for aroma and for the way it carries the tomato, not for a flavor of its own — if you would rather leave it out, deglaze with ⅓ cup of pasta water instead and the sauce still works.)
5Drop the penne into the boiling water and cook it 1 minute short of the package's al dente time. Before draining, reserve 1.5 cups of the pasta water — you will need it.
6Take the pan off the heat, stir in the heavy cream plus about ½ cup of the pasta water, then set it back on the lowest simmer for 3-4 minutes until it coats a spoon. Adding the cream off the boil rather than into a bubbling pan is what keeps a very acidic tomato base from breaking it. Do not salt it yet — a cup of Parmesan and the salted pasta water are both still coming.
7While the sauce simmers, build the salad in the bowl you will serve it from: whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper together in the bottom, then pile the arugula on top without tossing. Dressed arugula wilts within minutes, so it waits like this until the last second.
8Kill the heat under the sauce completely. Add the drained penne and toss a minute to coat, then add the Parmesan in three handfuls, tossing between each and splashing in more pasta water as you go, until every noodle is glossy. Off the heat and in stages is the whole trick — a cup of Parmesan dumped into a simmering acidic sauce seizes into strings instead of melting into it. Only now taste and add the salt, a little at a time. Keep the pepper flakes out of the pot and put them on the table instead.
9Toss the salad now, right before you sit down, and finish it with the shaved Parmesan. Scatter the torn basil over the pasta and serve the two together. IF YOU HAVE LEFTOVER PICCATA from earlier in the week, slice a cold chicken cutlet thin and lay it over the finished bowls — it takes the night from 23g of protein to closer to 40g, costs nothing extra, and the lemon on the chicken plays straight into the lemon on the salad.