vodka sauce pasta

Now you can make this popular creamy pink vodka sauce right at home! Incredibly easy lightened-up recipe with olive oil, tomatoes, half and half, and fresh basil. 

Vodka Sauce Recipe

Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

sweet onion, chopped

garlic cloves,

red pepper flakes

tomatoes

vodka

tomato paste

Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

kosher salt

basil

Tbsp. Parmesan cheese

penne pasta

black pepper,

In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium heat; add onions and garlic and cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute.

Stir in tomatoes and vodka and continue cooking the mixture for 5-7 minutes until slightly reduced, stirring occasionally.

Then stir in the tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, salt, and black pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low and simmer partially covered for 20 minutes until reduced by half, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, cook pasta in salted water according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Transfer tomato mixture to a food processor or blender, add basil, and purée until smooth. Return sauce to the pan and stir in half and half. You want creamy and slightly sweet consistency. Start with 1/2 cup of half and half, taste, and add more if needed. Cook until warmed through, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in parmesan cheese and then the cooked pasta. Toss to combine.

Serve immediately with additional sprinkle of cheese and basil, if desired.

Hi Katya!

I really like your Vodka Sauce Recipe!I was looking for a good recipe and all of them lacked something to be as good as yours. Thank you very much for sharing it!

Hi Katya,
Great recipe!  I made this for the first time tonight and my family loved it!  It was very easy and not too creamy but had lots of flavor.  I know we will be making this again sometime soon.

This looked like a better recipe than most others I saw. thank you. Your star rating is not working on chrome. Literally cannot give it 5 stars

Can you tell me what the balsamic  vinegar does to it. Never put it in but I will if you cant taste the vinegar.

I thought to put my tomatoes and puree in blender before and proceed with recipe.  Will that work?

My new favorite pasta sauce!!  So easy to make but so good !!  Thanks for sharing.

Perfect better than any vodka sauce that I've had at restaurants.  Only improvement I would suggest is to include nutritional information. My wife and I loved it.

Best vodka recipe I have ever made! Love that it tends more acidic than most vodka sauce recipes (hence the significantly oranger color than most others. Again and again I come back to this recipe. I use the sauce with gnochhi, homemade spinach ricotta ravioli, and in simple pasta meatball dishes paired with beer bread. I do sub in  3 onions, and 12 cloves of garlic, rather than stated but I like things on the overwhelmingly flavorful side.

TLDR: Absolutely delicious

Looks great! Making this with mushroom ravioli this evening. Love the lighter ingredients and the brighter flavors. The traditional version is always a little too rich for my preference. This is my first time visiting your site.

I made this recipe and it was definitely a hit. As any sauce I like to add my basil at the cooking stages and let it simmer for a good hour and I used my hand held Braun to purée the tomatoes since I like it a bit chunky. Overall an awesome recipe sauce

One of my best sauces todate !  Thanks! for the recipe !  wi

One of my best sauces todate !  Thanks! for the recipe !

Saturday night dinner is always hectic.  After a trip to Costco, your sauce made the five cheese tortellini restaurant quality. Thanks for a great easy to. Prepare sauce.

I made this tonight with the following changes: I used a large can of crushed tomatoes, doubled the red pepper flakes, and used close to 1 cup of half-and-half in place of the cream. By dicing the basil finely, I avoided having to use a blender. I used it over an Italian sausage stuffed ravioli and it was amazing.

Spot on! The only change I made was to use balsamic glaze in place of vinegar. Every one of your recipes I have made has made me look a great cook!! Your hard work is much appreciated!

This is by far the best vodka sauce I've ever eaten!! I did modify it slightly... I added in slightly more red pepper flakes and also cooked up two slices (diced) of pancetta which I added back in at the end once the sauce had been through the food processor. Can't wait to make this again!

I made this sauce yesterday exactly as posted and it was completely amazing. My family loved it. Flavourful and creamy and delicious. Thank you for yet another amazing recipe!!

I really wanted to like this recipe, but I followed it to the tee and at the very end, the half and half did not mix into the red sauce well... the half n half was just purchased and good. I think it maybe have because of the method of mixing into hot pan? I’m not sure. Ugh frustrating.

Worked out well for me! First vodka sauce in my kitchen :)

My favorite vodka sauce recipe! I’ve made it with meatballs, chicken cutlet, and using it to make my first vodka sauce lasagna tonight!

Love this recipe, easy and delicious! I cook up some pancetta and add it and it always turns out amazing!

Really love this recipe! I've made is several times now - it's actually super easy even for a weeknight and tastes pretty high end for not too much effort. Thanks!!

I didn’t think I could make something so delicious... thank God for google your site came up first and after making it I understand why! My family thanks you!

Would it be possible to make and then place in a crock pot to keep warm or will it separate?  I'm looking to use this recipe for a pasta bar for a birthday party.  Thank you!

Best homemade vodka sauce. Also easy to follow. 
Will even use as a red sauce without cream and parm!!

This was a wonderful sauce!! So flavorful and easy to make with items we had on the shelf and in the refrigerator . sub in dried basil but it was still so delicious!!!  I will keep this recipe forever it was that good!!!

First Vodka sauce I ever attempted and I never plan on trying a different one. It was so amazing and turned out so perfect it really made me seem like SUCH a good cook. Served it with spinach tortellini and it was *chefs kiss*. Thank you for this!

First time making homemade pasta so we gave this sauce a shot to pair with some (attempted) fettuccini noodles. It totally exceeded our expectations!! Our pasta needs some work, but we would make this sauce again in a heartbeat! Thanks for a great recipe:)

This is the first pasta I've ever made. It was easy but SO delicious! I made it for my whole family and they all said it was the best pasta they've ever had! Thanks for the great recipe!

I loved this recipe! I've never made a sauce from scratch like this before, and it was so delicious. I want to make it every week!

This was my first time making vodka sauce and it was INCREDIBLE. I’m lactose intolerant so I subbed the half &amp; half for nutpods dairy free creamer and you couldn’t tell a difference, and I was thrilled this recipe didn’t use butter. THANK YOU!

I made this with home made gnocchi and omg... this is hands down the best vodka sauce I’ve ever had even at restaurants! So good and the basil is such a great compliment! A touch of parmesan on top is wonderful.

“Why am I buying sauce in a jar!?!?”

Thank you this was heavenly!

This recipe was full of flavor and paired well with penne pasta and chicken.  My family loved it and I will be definitely making it again!

Fantastic, loved it, and so did my husband!

My husband and I love this recipe! It's delicious, rich and creamy and one of our go to dinner choices when we feel decadent. I transfer the sauce to a deep bowl and use an immersion blender instead of a food processor and it works wonderfully. I've omitted the tomato paste or the basil, and use fresh tomatoes instead of canned, and it turns out perfectly despite the changes.

Great idea! I have an immersion blender and never thought to try that

I've made many vodka sauce recipes but this is my favorite!

I made this recipe tonight and it was absolutely delicious. Love the use of half and half as opposed to heavy cream, which was a great change. The flavor was so amazing that even the kids loved it and wanted more. A big hit in our family but, unfortunately, there are no leftovers. Thank you!

This was the best and easiest vodka sauce I ever made! If I double the recipe should I change any measurements or will it still come out fine? Thank you so much for all of these delicious dinner ideas!

Thanks  for sharing this post with all of us. I really like this vodka sauce recipe and i found this recipe really an amazing recipe. Even i have a special vodka sauce recipe as well. 

This is our go-to Vodka Sauce recipe! We opted for heavy cream in place of half n half as that's all we had and it was nice and rich! I added some baked prosciutto-wrapped chicken strips to the top...sooo good! Thank you for a great recipe!

This dish was very flavorful and delicious.

I’d make some minor changes.

1) Add more garlic (cloves and garlic salt or powder)
2) Add turkey/chicken meatballs
3) Add shaved Parmesan

I tried this and it rendered beautiful results. I would definitely recommend this recipe and will plan on making it again. Thank you!

I absolutely love this recipe. I have made it multiple times for my family, birthday dinners, and brought to friends that had a new baby. It is the BEST vodka sauce I’ve ever tried! I always use Tito’s vodka. Thank you for sharing it.

Pasta in vodka sauce is a really easy 'from scratch' sauce to make with your most basic ingredients. Plus it's on the table in about 25 minutes or less.

Penne Alla Vodka Recipe

penne, rigatoni, or ziti

heavy cream

parmesan cheese

tomato paste (about 4.5 ounces)

shallot, finely chopped

garlic,

butter

olive oil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta until al dente. Reserve 2 cups of pasta water before draining and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter with olive oil. Add shallot and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes or until very tender. Do not burn!

Add tomato paste, red pepper flakes, and vodka. Stir until paste fully coats the shallots and garlic. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add 1 cup of pasta water. Stir until smooth. Bring sauce to a simmer, add cream, and turn off the heat. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Fold in the pasta until fully coated in the sauce. Add parmesan cheese and continue to toss/mix.

Add additional reserved pasta water as needed (a little at a time) if the sauce is too thick. I like a creamy sauce that is just thick enough to really coat the pasta without being too runny. I usually just do 1 cup total.

Serve garnished with more Parmesan and chopped fresh basil.

Just made this recipe and it is absolutely delicious! Would highly recommend.

Top 2 vodka sauce pasta recipes from across the web

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Vodka Sauce Recipe

Penne Alla Vodka Recipe

Top 2 vodka sauce pasta recipes from across the web

The most viewed vodka sauce pasta recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Vodka Sauce Recipe

Penne Alla Vodka Recipe

The most viewed vodka sauce pasta recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine