Vodka Pasta 2.0
It's time to level up your pasta game! This is the same base of the iconic vodka pasta I shared last year BUT BETTER with some extra delicious additions to make it a little boujee and a lot better.
Ingredients
Same ingredients as Pasta Alla Vodka, with a couple of additions;
- A few cans of tomatoes: completely optional but I added in some I had lying around to increase the quantity of my sauce and it’s a good way to feed a fam on a budget.
- Pork sausage: mine are Italian pork and fennel sausages from my local @peterbouchier. If you can’t eat pork, any other sausage (beef, lamb, chicken) will still work.
- Nduja, a spicy spreadable salami paste which you’ll find in either jars of in thick salami stick form at your nearest Italian deli. If vego/vegan, just use a tablespoon of my chilli oil.
- Butter: the best one you can find. I picked up a smoky tomato flavoured one from @lardassbutter, locally made cultured butter based in Ocean Grove, Victoria
- Parmesan rinds: the rind of your parmesan cheese. Rather than throwing these tough bits out when you finish your cheese, store them in bags in your fridge and throw them into your next pasta sauce. They’ll melt into the sauce and add a delicious ‘umami’ flavour to the sauce.
Method
- Cook you vodka pasta sauce as per normal up until the point of adding your cream.
- Add in your tomato cans at this point.
- Then squeeze your small blobs of your sausage from the casing so you get small meatballs. These will cook in no time and add flavour to your sauce.
- Add in a tablespoon of nduja paste.
- Throw in a parmesan rind and allow to simmer in the sauce for anywhere between 10mins to an hour if you have the time.
- Add in a tablespoon of butter. It’ll add to the creaminess of the sauce.
- Stir in your cream as you would with the original vodka pasta recipe.
- Cook your pasta in salted boiling water until al dente or rise to the top if you’re cooking gnocchi or ball shaped pasta like I have.
- Place into a pan with a few ladles of the sauce, a ladle of starchy pasta water and allow to cook for another 2 minutes or so, so the pasta can absorb the sauce.
- Serve onto a platter with fresh finely grated parmesan or grana padano and fresh basil.
- Go to vodka pasta heaven 🙏🏽