Bloody Mary Pasta

One of my favourite pastas to make this Winter has been Bloody Mary Pasta and yes, as you may have guessed by the name, it's pasta with tomato and vodka (minus the other ingredients that go into the cocktail version).

Now as far as I see it, the only down side of being in love with this dish is having to make frequent visits to the liquor store to stock up on vodka (I get approximately three meals out of one bottle). Being a solo parent, that means having at least one child with me each time I go which, I venture to say, is not a good look when making recurrent beelines for the vodka aisle! Sometimes, as I'm waiting in line to pay, I do feel the urge to shout out "It's for cooking, not drinking!" but I'm doubtful anyone would actually believe me.

On one of our recent family excursions to the grog shop, I gave my nine-year-old a little educational tour around the aisles, so he could see which parts of Australia and the world that wine is made in and other very important information they're not allowed to teach in schools. Our conversation turned to how expensive alcohol can be. He was gobsmacked at how pricey one single bottle of wine can cost. Then I showed him how expensive the spirits were. His eye suddenly caught on a bottle of 35-year-old Scotch Whisky and in amazement he shouted out "Mum! This one costs more money than you've got in the bank!" I'm not sure how he knows how much money I have in the bank but unfortunately he was right (and a rather large number of people in our neighbourhood know now too!)

But back to the vodka and the pasta. It's super easy to make and if you serve it for dinner guests you can have fun trying to make them guess the secret ingredient :)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of butter

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 cups of crushed tomatoes

1 cup of vodka

1 cup of chicken stock

1/2 cup of cream

salt & pepper

500g of pasta of your choice (I used spaghetti in the photo above, but fettuccine and tagliatelle work better because this is a thick sauce. My kids' favourite is penne though because they can stick their forks easily through the hole in the centre :)

3/4 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated

2 tablespoons parley, chopped

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a medium-sized pot

2. Cook onion over low heat until tender

3. Add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes more

4. Add the tomatoes, vodka and stock

5. Simmer until it becomes thick

6. Add the cream, salt and pepper

7. Cook the pasta. Drain and add to the saucepan

8. Mix through until pasta is covered with sauce

9. Serve with parmesan and parsley

My son was appalled the first time I cooked this and told him it had vodka in it. So we fitted in a little chemistry lesson there too about alcohol boiling off when it's cooked, which is about as far as my chemistry knowledge goes :)

And as you can see, it's well received by even the littlest member of our household ...

Have you ever cooked with vodka?  ... and by that I mean 'do you know any other recipes with vodka in them?' not 'do you cook with a vodka in your hand?' :)