Pasta with vodka tomato sauce - when simple food tastes great

Years ago I saw this pasta sauce on many blogs, some of them my favorites and I had all the intention of making it, but for some reason I never did and it ended up slipping my mind.

I thought of it days ago when I bought a bottle of vodka to make a new batch of vanilla extract and wrote the idea down to avoid forgetting it all over again. The original recipe calls for shallots, but there was a leek in my fridge begging to be used and I added it instead.

I’m not sure if it was the leek, the vodka, the cream or the three of them together, but this turned out to be one of the tastiest tomato sauces I’ve ever made – seriously good. It is flavorsome, creamy without being heavy and slightly peppery, not to mention simple to make.

I had no idea this sauce would turn out so delicious when I set out to make it and now I strongly recommend you try it, too.

Pasta with vodka tomato sauce
slightly adapted from this book and from Rachel Ray

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 small leek, white part only
1 fat garlic clove, minced
pinch of red pepper flakes
½ cup (120ml) vodka
1 can (400g/16oz) chopped canned tomatoes
2 teaspoons sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
225g (8oz) dried short pasta, such as farfalle or penne
¼ cup (60ml) heavy cream
handful fresh basil leaves, shredded or torn
grated parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat a medium saucepan over moderate-high heat. Add butter and oil and while the butter melts, slice the leek in half lengthwise, then cut both halves in thin slices. Add to the saucepan and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant. Gradually pour in the vodka, stir then cook until reduced by half, 3-4 minutes. Add tomatoes, sugar, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook partially covered until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While sauce simmers, cook pasta in salted boiling water until cooked to al dente.

Stir cream into sauce, cook for 5 minutes, stir in the basil and remove from the heat. Drain pasta and toss it with the sauce. Serve immediately sprinkled with the cheese.

Serves 2

Double limoncello poppy seed cookies + homemade limoncello

Trying to solve the boozy cookbook problem I thought that it would be nice having a bottle of limoncello at home – it seemed to be the perfect alcoholic acquisition for a person like me. Unfortunately that idea was discarded the minute I saw how much a bottle of limoncello cost. :S
Luckily for me, there was a recipe for homemade limoncello in Francine Segan’s beautiful book and it was super easy to make: the only tricky part was having to wait 4 weeks to taste the liqueur – which turned out to be quite strong and very lemony, indeed – and to make these delicious cookies as well.

Double limoncello poppy seed cookies
from the adorable The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets

Cookies:
½ cup (1 stick/113g) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup (133g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
finely grated zest of 2 large lemons
2 teaspoons limoncello
1 1/3 cups (185g) all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Glaze:
1 cup (140g) icing sugar
2 tablespoons limoncello
hot water, if necessary

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Cookies: beat butter and sugar together until creamy and light. Add the egg, zest and limoncello and beat until combined.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture and mix in low speed just until combined. Mix in the poppy seeds.
Form 1 ½ heaping teaspoons of dough into balls and place onto prepared sheets 5cm (2in) apart. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until golden around the edges. Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the glaze: sift the icing sugar into a small bowl. Gradually add the limoncello, stirring until desired consistency (add the water only if necessary). Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cookies and set aside until set, about 15 minutes.

Makes about 40

Homemade limoncello
from the lovely Dolci: Italy's Sweets

6 lemons
2 cups (480ml) vodka
2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
3 cups (720ml) water

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the yellow zest from the lemons in long strips. Put the peels and vodka in a 1.4 to 2 liter sealable glass container and set aside in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks.
Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan and stir in the sugar. Simmer until the sugar is dissolved, then remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. Pour the sugar syrup into the container with the zest and vodka. Seal and store for another 2 weeks in a cool place. Pour through a fine sieve and discard the peels (I did not do that - I kept the peels in the bottle).
Keep in the freezer.

Makes about 5 cups (1.2 liters)

Mini meringues with boozy cherries and orange cream

Some people say – and several of them are from my family – that the best things in life are the simple ones. As much as I hate agreeing with my grandmother – and she knows that – this orange cream is a good example: ridiculously simple, but it has got to be one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. In 31 years of existence. :)

The original recipe called for fresh cranberries, but I can’t get hold of them here in Brazil – the wonderful, plump dried cherries I got from a lovely friend replaced them beautifully.

Mini meringues with boozy cherries and orange cream
adapted from Delicious magazine

Meringues:
400g caster sugar
200g (about 5 large) free-range egg whites

Topping:
about ½ cup (72g) dried cherries*
3 tablespoons vodka
40g caster sugar
600ml heavy (whipping) cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
1-2 tablespoons orange flower water, to taste
Handful unsalted shelled pistachios, chopped

Preheat the oven to 220°C/428°F. Spread the sugar evenly over a shallow baking tray, lined with baking paper, and place in the oven for about 10 minutes until really hot.

Place the egg whites in an electric mixer fitted with a whisk. Whisk on high speed until the whites begin to froth, then gradually pour in the hot sugar. Continue whisking on a high speed for 10 minutes until the meringue is beautifully silky and holds its shape.
Reduce the temperature to 110°C/230°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper - stick the baking paper to the baking sheets with a little meringue.
Fill a piping bag with the meringue and pipe golf ball-size rounds on to the baking sheet – I used two small spoons to shape the meringues and made them a little bigger. Have a bowl of water nearby; dip a teaspoon in the water and use the back of it to create a nest shape. Repeat, spaced apart – you should get about 60 mini meringues.
Bake the mini meringues for 1 hour, or until crisp to touch. Turn off the oven and leave inside to cool completely.
Gently heat the cherries, vodka and caster sugar in a small pan for 3-5 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the cherries plump up a bit. Cool a little. In a bowl, whip the cream, icing sugar and orange flower water, to taste, to soft peaks.
To assemble: place the meringues on serving plates, and spoon a small dollop of orange cream onto each one. Spoon a boozy cherry and a little syrup over the top, then sprinkle with chopped pistachios.

* the amount of cherries will depend on the number of meringues you end up with, since there has to be one cherry to top each mini pavlova

Makes 60 – I made ¼ of the recipe above, used two spoons to shape the meringues (instead of a piping bag) and got 8 mini pavlovas