"Penne alla Vodka" - why vodka?!

[brie]

One of my dear friends spent her university years in Italy, and is as a result a very fine purveyor of Italian cuisine. She recently supplied me with a recipe for her personal version of penne alla vodka. Here it is, straight from the horse's mouth:

2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 T butter
1 14 oz can peeled tomatoes, broken up with your hands or knife
1/3 cup vodka
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated parmesan + more for sprinkling on top
1 lb penne
Salt to taste

Place the red pepper flakes into the vodka and let sit for 2 hours to absorb flavor. I recommend using a decent vodka, not that gallon jug rotgut.

Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil and add penne. Cook as instructed on the box but taste test 2 minutes before minimum time is up to be sure you don't overcook.

Meanwhile, in a pan large enough to accomodate the cooked pasta, saute the garlic in butter until soft but not brown. Stir in the tomatoes and vodka and simmer 3 minutes. Season with salt. Add cream and simmer 2-3 minutes. Add the 1/4 cup parmesan and stir until emulsified. Add cooked pasta with to the sauce and stir until the pasta thoroughly imbued with the sauce. Serve immediately (in warm dishes if you want to be fancy) with a grated parmesan on the table for those who feel the need (i.e. me and every other human with tastebuds worthy of the name).

My main question: why cook with vodka? I can understand a sauce with sherry, cognac, wine - heck, even Jack Daniels - because they all add flavour. Good vodka doesn't taste like much, and I was under the impression that the alcohol evaporates out anyway. I shot back an email to my friend asking her about this. Here's her reply:

As much as I'd like to give some fascinating explanation of the chemical effect of vodka on tomatoes, the truth is the vodka is not necessary at all. I could make the exact same dish without it and you'd never be able to tell the difference. It was invented in the 70s as a way to promote pepper vodka and quickly became a tourist favorite. Nowadays people make it with non-pepper vodka anyway and either steep some hot pepper flakes in the vodka or leave it out altogether. Of course, the latter people are insane and I pity them.

I'm stumped - is she correct? If so, then why do so many recipes call for vodka that is not steeped in pepper?

[davidscooking]

A couple of things.

Capsicum, the stuff that causes chile peppers to be hot, cannot be dissolved in water, but it will dissolve in alcohol (that's why having an alcoholic beverage at the ready is a good idea when you're eating really hot food--it more thoroughly rinses your mouth). When you soak the chile flakes in high-proof alchohol and add it to the dish, it helps evenly distribute the heat, rather than having really hot little bits scattered throughout. You can accomplish much the same thing by grinding the flakes into a fine powder and omitting the vodka.

Why do so many recipes call for vodka? Um, can't help you there. I own something like 50 cookbooks, and I've read thousands of other recipes in magazines, on the internet, etc. Yours is the first recipe I've ever seen that calls for vodka....

[Pongi]

Brie,

in Italy, Penne alla Vodka belong to the traditional repertoire of bad restaurants, together with other dishes like "Tagliata alla Rucola", "Filetto al Pepe Verde", "Penne all'Indiana" (obviously with a curry sauce) and so on.
They must be born with the purpose to serve something "Russian", since Vodka is often coupled in those sauces with caviar and/or smoked salmon.
Honestly, I don't know whether a more "technical" reason exists for adding Vodka to a pasta sauce...but personally I can't recommend that you do it. As I said, it's a bad restaurants' trick.

Pongi

[phatch]

What I've read is the vodka thing was an addition that first occurred in the US (according to Jeff Smith). There are good and bad versions. Nick Stellino did one on PBS over the weekend that wouldn't have been to my taste with the salmon he used.

I agree somewhat with Pongi. It's not authentic Italian. But it is certainly in the range and repertoire of Italian-American food. And using vodka doesn't automatically make it bad. But according to Smith, you have to use a cheap vodka that actually has some taste, not the good stuff without taste (as by definition, vodka should have no flavor of its own).

Phil

[brie]

Heh - looks like I should have gone to the source before opening my trap and looking like a fool:

I got the recipe from a great friend of the family (a Roman native who had married an American man and was reknown for her incredible spreads) who deployed it to much acclaim during dinner parties. It is without the question the easiest sure to impress dish I have ever made.

As for my bona fides, I lived in Italy for 18 years. Emilia Romagna (land of Parmegiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma) for 2 years, Milan for 3, Rome for 13. Penne alla vodka is common in restaurants now, not because of an aged tradition, but just because Americans love that <expletive>. And so do I.

[Pongi]

JUST what I was speaking of!

Rome is the native land of tourist traps...

Pongi