Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Italian Sausage vodka sauce pasta (Ben R's Recipe)


While in New Orleans last year Troy's trainee cooked us a great dinner! So I got the recipe and recreated it....well close to it that is. You can't find pre-made vodka sauce here...so that I made from scratch. We gave it a 4/5 stars.... Pretty good and I think would be perfect if I did the spicy Italian Sausage and added pepper flakes.



Ben R's Italian Sausage Pasta:
"1 box of rigatoni  pasta, 1 lb of hot italian sausage, 1 jar of Vodka Sauce (paul newman, barilla, classico), frozen peas - cut sausage into small pieces, boil the pasta, add ingredients together. If you want to get fancy, after you add the sausage into the sauce, keep the pan hot, add a half a cup of some red wine to the pan, then add that to the sauce. boom."
Here is the vodka sauce recipe I made fro allrecipes.com:
  • 1 cup vodka
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (didn't have these but will add next time!)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3/4 pound prosciutto, chopped (I used the Italian sausage instead)
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced (used 3 because you really can't have to much garlic!)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 (28 ounce) can roma tomatoes, with juice
  • 2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
  • 1 cup heavy cream

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, combine vodka and red pepper flakes. Set aside for 1 hour.
  2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute prosciutto, garlic, parsley, basil, salt and pepper until prosciutto is evenly brown. Pour in vodka mixture, and simmer 10 minutes. Crush tomatoes, and stir in with 2 cans of tomato sauce, and 1 (8 ounce) can water. Simmer 15 minutes. Stir in 1 cup heavy cream, and cook 2 minutes.