Monday, October 25, 2010

Why Have I Waited This Long????

To make penne a la vodka, that is. I love this dish and order it frequently when I dine out. If I had known how quick and easy it is to make at home I would be eating it a hell of a lot more often. Maybe it's good that I waited so long because it's pretty calorie laden and I can eat a whole lot of it, LOL! What motivated me to make this was an error in my grocery delivery. My favorite market isn't all that close and lately they have been giving me free delivery so I have been totally taking advantage of that luxury! When I got my delivery this week there was a bag of stuff that wasn't mine. I immediately told the delivery person upon discovery, and quite frankly, she couldn't have given a rats ass. She had me sign my paperwork and took off sans bag. OK. Inside the magic bag of free goodies was a bunch or organic herbs and greens! WOO HOO! There was also two very thickly sliced pieces of prosciutto. I mean THICK! The only thing I could think to use them for was penne a la vodka and since I just happen to have some vodka in the house and some cream, there was no holding me back. Here is what I did.

First I got the pasta cooking in some salted boiling water.

To make the sauce, I chopped some onion and garlic finely using my little food processor and sauteed that in a saucepan with some olive oil. I trimmed and chopped the prosciutto and added that to the pot and kept it all moving until the onions were translucent. Then I added about a 1/4 Cup vodka and let that simmer a bit before adding a can of diced fire roasted tomatoes. I had a few garden tomatoes on the counter that were starting to get funky so I cut off the icky parts, gave them a quick dice and threw them into the pot too. To this I added a ladle full of the pasta water and let it simmer for a bit before hitting it with my immersion blender to smooth it out a bit. After that I added a little Parmesan cheese, basil and oregano and then the cream. I turned the heat off shortly after adding the cream. At this point the pasta was done so I drained it and returned it to the pot and poured the vodka sauce over it. A quick toss to combine and husband and I had ourselves one heck of a dinner!

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