Spicy Penne alla Vodka Recipe
I spent some time this weekend cooking for the family and decided to make one of my favorite dishes – penne alla vodka. While it’s not one of the most rustic dishes I’ve ever made, I did use a cast iron skillet to make it so it has some ‘suburban homesteading credibility!’
I have made this dish a few times, slightly tweaking the recipe every time. This weekend’s version was the best yet and I decided to share it with you.
Recommendations
This penne alla vodka dish is always a crowd-pleaser – whether you are cooking a romantic dinner for your better half or making dinner for a house full of guests. Hearty and filling, it really hits the spot and goes great with a nice cabernet sauvignon or pinot noir. Add a little fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano and you have a restaurant quality meal that you can make on a budget in about 45 minutes.
Even though this dish is great the way it is, there are a few ways to tweak it. The first tweak is the amount of sausage you use. Personally, we like a meal with a lot of meat so we use a full pound of sausage. If you want more of a pasta dish without meat, try using a lesser amount like 3oz (2 links) of sausage. Secondly, this dish has a slight hint of heat thanks to the red pepper flakes. If you want a milder meal, remove the red pepper flakes and if you want a bit spicier meal, use hot sausage and take the red pepper flakes out of th recipe. Whatever you do, don’t use spicy sausage AND red pepper flakes. I made that mistake once and it caused the dish to be super hot and not very enjoyable.
Go and try this spicy penne alla vodka recipe and let us know how it worked out for you!