I teased about this recipe for a while and here it finally is. I worked on this for a while, trying to take a very heavy Italian dish and lighten it a tad. The original recipe, by Pioneer Woman, has more cream and butter than any person should probably have in a month. I played around with reducing the fats and perfected it to the recipe you see below.
One of my favorite restaurants serves their Penne alla Vodka with sliced black olives, but I found that addition to be too salty for this recipe. If you wanted to try that I would definitely recommend leaving out the additional salt and looking for low salt olives.
Although I did cut the fats significantly I still wouldn’t consider this a light, healthy meal. It is however a great alternative to ordering the same dish out at a restaurant. Coming in at a little less than 350 calories per serving, I would guess most restaurant dishes wouldn’t come close to that.
- 1 pound penne
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 shallots, minced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ⅔ cup vodka
- 1 – 14oz can tomato sauce
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- pepper
- fresh grated Parmesan cheese
- Cook pasta on stove, while cooking prepare the sauce.
- Heat butter and olive oil over medium heat, add garlic and shallots and saute 3-4 minutes until soft. Add vodka and reduce to half, let simmer about 4 minutes. Pour in tomato sauce and stir to combine.
- Reduce heat to low and slowly add cream. Mix until combined. Toss in red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste.
- Toss sauce with drained pasta and garnish with fresh Parmesan.
Welcome to supperforasteal – Helena Here, but friends call me Lane! 