Vodka: Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

By Nikki Berglund
Staff Writer

The weekends are usually when my husband Paul and I embark on our cooking adventures. Last weekend, we settled on the arduous task of homemade gnocchi. In case you are not familiar with gnocchi, they are dumplings, often made with potatoes, which are a whole heckuva lot of pain in the butt to make. After looking at a ton of extremely difficult looking recipes and realizing that we had neither a “ricer” (thingy used to mash the potatoes into a fluffy pulp) nor the energy required of us on this lazy Sunday, we eventually decided to put this endeavor on hold for another day.

We did not completely abandon the idea of gnocchi however and instead decided to test the available store bought versions. You can buy them in either the frozen food section or the pasta aisle, where they have a vacuum-packed version. We went with the frozen one this time around, and although not comparable to the homemade stuff, they were not too shabby. FYI, these do not reheat well the next day and instead turn into a mushy mess.

We realized we would feel equally accomplished if we could at least come up with a delicious new pasta sauce. Whenever I am out for Italian food, fettuccini alfredo always sounds so delicious to me, but the guilt is just too overwhelming for me to actually order it. Plus, all of that butter and cream just turns my stomach right upside down. Despite our fairly healthy cooking style, my husband and I do sometimes crave something a little decadent and naughty. So we got the idea to attempt to make vodka sauce; a tomato based sauce with just a hint of creamy deliciousness. I would say despite a little tweaking for the next time, our new sauce was a tasty success.

Vodka Cream Sauce (courtesy of allrecipes.com)
1 cup vodka
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 pound prosciutto, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
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

In a small bowl, combine vodka and red pepper flakes. Set aside for 1 hour. 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.

Overall we were very happy with the guts of this recipe, but as usual we modified it just a little and came up with some other changes for next time. We started out infusing the vodka with the crushed red pepper flakes for about an hour. One cup did seem like a lot of vodka but it all burned off in the end. It was suggested that higher quality vodka be used but who knows if this made a difference or not? We did follow the sauté part of the recipe with the exception of the crazy amounts of prosciutto. Paul wondered if maybe this was a typo, because ¾ pound is really A LOT of prosciutto and is also very expensive. Ever since my trip to Italy I am madly in love with the stuff, but you really could leave it out all together, especially if you have vegetarians to feed. 

In the future we are also going to try a couple of things different. First off, we make a pretty rockin’ tomato sauce that we could probably have just married with the infused vodka and the heavy cream for just as good if not better results. Speaking of the heavy cream…as wonderful as it was, I think we could be a little healthier the next time without sacrificing too much of the flavor by substituting something else - not sure what yet? Also, the 8oz of water was unnecessary if you appreciate a thicker sauce which we do.

Lucky for us, this was the weekend I had all four of the Duxoup wines at my disposal and all paired amazingly well with our gnocchi in vodka cream sauce. I wrote about the winery/wine dinner last week but didn’t really get a chance to talk about the wines. We thought we should try the Dolcetto with the dinner first since the white aspect of the sauce called for something light and fruity. I didn’t actually know I was as big of a Dolcetto fan until I tried this one. I believe this one is a little heavier than many I’ve tried, and maybe that is why I liked it so much. These wines are meant to be drunk young in order to preserve the fruit-forward characteristics that this grape is known for.

Next we tried the Gennaio Sangiovese which comes from the Teldeschi family vineyard in Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma. The name “Gennaio” means January in Italian, the significance being that it is the birthday month of both of the winemakers, their wedding anniversary, and the date they found the land to build their winery on. For this wine, they blend about 7 to 10 percent Cabernet with it, adding to the already strong backbone. This was another winner with our meal.

I had tried the Charbono (pronounced SHAR-bono) at the Hodo before and loved it.  Charbono is an ancient grape that is said to predate both Cabernet and Pinot Noir and comes with confusing ancestry. Some people say it is identical to the Italian Dolcetto and others say it is its own entity. This wine is medium bodied with an inky dark color filled with flavors of black fruits and pepper. You won’t find a lot of these around, and in fact very few wineries make a Charbono in the United States. This is the only one I have had, and I love it!

Last but not least, with whatever sobriety we still could muster up, we tried the Duxoup Syrah. I love a good Syrah and this one definitely qualified. Overall we found all of these wines to be very food friendly, versatile and just pretty amazing all around. The only thing I wasn’t loving was the inevitable hangover that started off my Monday!

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