Date Completed: 6/26/2022

Let’s play catch-up, shall we? I’m a bit behind on my 2022 posts (I say as I post a June recipe at the end of December).

This fantastic pasta recipe came from the Dinner chapter of Barefoot Contessa Foolproof

I’ve long been a fan of penne alla vodka and was very excited to try this version!

We didn’t realize the sauce had to cook for an hour and a half, but started early enough that it didn’t matter. I had also made chocolate chip cookies that afternoon so we had snacks to keep us going.

Some photos of the process of cooking the onions, spices and squishing our tomatoes!

Garrett was wearing a white shirt this day so I handled most of the squishing.

I loved that the recipe called for an exact amount of salt to add to the pasta cooking water!

After the initial bake, the sauce smelled amazing and looked terrible! Luckily, the immersion blender saved the day.

I love adding the cream to the sauce - you finally get that classic color!

Final steps of merging the pasta with the sauce and the all-important parmesan.

Taste Report:

Plain and simple: I would eat this sauce as a tomato soup.

I loved the contrast of the earthy oregano and the bright San Marzano tomatoes. I’d always made vodka sauce with basil but really enjoyed the oregano in this recipe. There was a also spicy kick to the creamy sauce that I really liked. Garrett said it reminded him of hot wing sauce.

I especially loved this with extra grated parmesan on top. We also paired it with a crisp white wine, of course!

My last note: The specific salt measurement for this recipe opened my eyes to how severely I had been under-salting my pasta cooking water. I was truly amazed the difference the salt made when tasting the plain pasta. Very neat!