Spaghetti with Vodka Cream Sauce

I think this is the recipe that started it all for me.  Because I kept hearing about this sauce, and how it had vodka (something that tends to stick in ones mind!) and cream and tomatoes and you just serve it with al dente pasta, and BAM it blows you away because it is so AMAZING.

They were right.  It was delicious.  And it is DEFINITELY going in my special book of favourite recipes (trust me, this is a real honour!). 

The beautiful thing about this recipe, is that you can do SO much more with it; it's a perfect base for all sorts of variations.  Let your imagination run WILD!  Also, ingredients don't have to be exact, like chill out, if you don't have fresh basil, use dried.  If you don't have basil at all, try oregano.  Cooking is FLEXIBLE! :)

It serves 3 - 4.  Everything I cook will probably serve about that much, because we are a family of 3.  :)  I'm not gonna bother with nutritional info, that's way too involved haha... and I'm lazy.

INGREDIENTS

dry thin spaghetti pasta (OR any other pasta, enough for 3-4 serves), cooked al dente, drained, kept warm

1 tbsp (olive) oil - I used canola/rice bran oil - whatever you have is cool.

1/2 cup finely chopped onion (OR 2 to 3 shallots)

3/4 tsp salt, divided

a pinch of dried chilli powder (to taste - be frugal, trust me)

1 garlic clove, minced (OR the equivalent approx crushed garlic, that's cool too!)

1/2 cup vodka

1/4 cup vegetable or chicken broth

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1/4 cup cream

3 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil - or dried, up to you, whatever is in the cupboard!

shaved or grated parmesan cheese, for on top!

METHOD

• Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat, and sauté onion until tender.
• Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, chilli, and garlic; sauté 1 minute.
• Add vodka (when cooking with alcohol, there is always the chance of it catching on fire, so be very careful); bring to a boil. 
• Reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes or until liquid is reduced by about half. 
• Stir in scant 1/2 teaspoon salt, broth, and tomatoes and dried basil (if you're not using fresh); bring to a boil. 
• Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. 
• Remove skillet from heat and let cool slightly.  Now at this point, the original recipe I followed says to use a stick blender to puree, or to take it out and use a conventional blender to puree before returning to the pan for finishing touches.  But personally, I don't mind a chunky lumpy tomato sauce.  So I skipped this step.
• Mix in cream, then cook the sauce for 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat. Stir in cooked pasta and fresh basil (if you're using it)
• Taste the pasta and adjust seasoning if needed. 
• Serve immediately with copious amounts of cheese, because who doesn't love cheese.  If you don't have parmesan, no stress, any cheese is good pretty much!  We usually just have Edam. 

Et voila!  Amazeballs pasta.  YUM.  Unfortunately, when I first made this, I wasn't planning on having a food blog, and I didn't take photos, but I promise next time I make it, I will take a photo and add it to this post.  But pretty much it just looks like a bowl of heaven. 

Now I'm going to give credit to the website I got this recipe off, as the above is only a slight variation of her instructions... and I don't plagiarise.  I just set the method out in an easier way to read, and altered it to what I actually did as opposed to what was written in the original.  :)  It's here: http://www.6bittersweets.com/2010/11/boy-approved-spiked-pasta-spaghetti.html