New Italian Recipes Presents:
Penne With Vodka And Tomato-Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
About 4 slices of pancetta or smoked bacon, diced and cooked until crisp. Drain on a paper towel.
1 lb. dried Italian tubular pasta,-such as penne, cooked to desired doneness and drained but not rinsed. (Leave the starch intact. It helps to hold the sauce).
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced.
1/2 red or green bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup diced celery
3-5 cloves garlic, sliced. (Sliced garlic that is not razor thin will hold up better in cooking. Finely diced is easily burned and may turn bitter)
1 T flour
2 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 t crushed red peppers-(hot red pepper flakes), or to taste
2 cups homemade tomato sauce.
 

3/4 cup chicken stock
2 T Vodka
1 c non-fat half and half
2 T freshly chopped rosemary leaves
3-4 T fresh Italian, flat-leaf parsley, diced
1/4 cup parmigiano-reggianno, grated.

Preparation:
In a sauce pan, prepare the tomato sauce. (Tomato Sauce Recipe Link)

Over medium low heat, warm 1-2 T olive oil in skillet.

Add the onions, bell pepper and celery and "sweat" for about 5 minutes. (This is the famed Cajun "trinity", by the way, but it works really well in Italian, also).

Add garlic and sauté for about 2 more minutes.

Add flour. Mix in well until flour soaks up juices.

Add balsamic vinegar. Reduce liquid by about half.

Add bacon or pancetta and red pepper flakes.

Add the tomato sauce and chicken stock, rosemary and vodka. Reduce liquid by about half.

Add the cooked and drained pasta and combine it with the penne with vodka sauce. (Note:)Time the pasta so it goes directly from the drainer into the sauce, that is the best method we've found to produce "perfectly done" pasta.

Add the half and half, stir it in quickly, then remove the pan from the heat.

Garnish with Parsley and parmigiano-reggiano.

Vodka with penne is a rich dish, but the sauce is very light from the tomato standpoint. You might try a cabernet sauvignon of a light red zinfandel with this one.

Similar sauces to this one work well when you add a lot of basil into the tomato sauce as you make it. By that, I mean a couple of cups of loosely chopped basil, much more than is called for in the basic, homemade tomato sauce recipe. Experiment. That's what gourmet cooking is all about.