Vodka Sauce
First up is vodka sauce. It’s creamy, it’s rich, it’s a touch spicy, and I think it’s really underrated by home cooks. To make it, I’ll drop a big pot of water on the stove for my pasta. Then I’ll grab a heavy bottom pot with at least four quarts of space and drop it over medium heat. Once that’s hot, I’ll add in a long squiggle of olive oil or about 40 grams worth. Then 75 g of minced shallots, 20 g of minced garlic, and then a strong pinch of salt. I cut the shallots into a bruno or a very very small dice because I want them to melt into the sauce instead of being texturally significant. And if you don’t have shallots, of course, you can go for red onions.Just make sure to cut them really small like this. After a stir at about 5 minutes of sweating over medium heat, the shallot garlic is translucent and softened. So, next I’ll add in 30 to 40 grams of chopped Calabrian chilies, 2 to three grams of chili flakes, and a little bit more oil to keep things sizzling properly. Next, I’ll jump in, stir to combine, and sweat the chilies with the aromatics for about 2 minutes or until the oil is perfumed with the fruity heat of the Calabrians. If you don’t have Calabrians, sub in an extra pinch or two of chili flake. 2 minutes later, I’ll add in one whole can of tomato paste, which is about 170 gram.
Then I’ll jump in and fry that in the chili garlic oil over medium heat to round off any sharp acidity, develop a little bit more sweetness, and blunt any canned tomato flavor. 2 minutes later, the tomato paste has turned a little bit rusty and everything is starting to glaze up the bottom of the pot. At this point, it’s time to add in the namesake of this dish, vodka. 100 g worth. If vodka isn’t morally aligned for you, you can use water here. Just know that you’re going to be missing out on a couple of percentage points of flavor.
By the way, if you’re wondering, vodka helps pull out extra flavor from the tomatoes and aromatics that aren’t soluble in water, just alcohol. It also adds just a little bit of bite that makes the creamy sauce taste better without making it taste like booze. 30 seconds later, the vodka is simmered off and we’re left with a flavorful paste. So, I’ll move on to add in 350 g of heavy cream. Then, I’ll stir that in and gently bring this up to a simmer over low heat because cream can pretty easily grip the pan and scorch if you use higher heat.
Now I’ll lazily slowly bubble this sauce for about 5 minutes while I drop one lb of fusili into water that I’ve salted generously. I love fusili for this dish because the creamy sauce gets caught in these little spiraly folds. And that gives you a high sauce to pasta ratio. And when your sauce tastes as good as this one, that’s a good thing. 1 minute before the pasta is done cooking, I’m going to scoop out about a cup’s worth of pasta water in case I need to thin this sauce out later on. Sometimes I need it, sometimes I don’t.
But it’s a good thing to have boiling hot water around to thin out your pasta instead of lukewarm tap water. At the 9-minute mark, I’m going to take a little bite ski to test for dness. And we’re good. Just a hair past al dente is what I personally prefer. Back at the sauce, the final texture should be what we call in restaurants nape. That means the sauce clings to the back of a spoon, but it leaves a nice trail when you pass your finger through it. To finish this dish, I’m going to flip my drain fusili into the pot. Then add in 75 g of butter and 50 to 75 g of grated parmesan. Now I’ll just stir that in off heat to melt in the dairy.
Once melted, the sauce should be clinging to each noodle, but not so clingy that it’s gloppy or sticky. The overall texture should look smooth and velvety like this. The final step for all pasta dishes, of course, is to taste for seasoning. And I think that tastes great, but I still want just a little bit more high-end from a small pinch of salt. And this sat for a second, so it tightened up a little bit too much.
So I’m going to grab some pasta water and splash that in to bring things back to being a little bit more saucy. To serve, I’m going to pile this into a nice low pasta bowl. Then top with a generous hit of grated Parmesan cheese. And then a little fresh cracked black pepper to bring a different kind of heat than the Calabrians or the chili flakes. And that is a dreamy creamy vodka sauce that’s teed up for a variety of different pasta shapes, not just fusili. Now, let’s taste it. M. That is a freaking party food. It’s creamy.
It’s cravable. It’s comforting. And it’s so freaking flavorful, guys. The little folds in the fusili perfectly hold this creamy tomato sauce. And then the whole thing is tied together with some parmesan cheese. It’s It’s so good. I love it. I think more people should make this dish at home.
Amatriciana
Up next is a maximalist version of tomato sauce called amatricana. At first glance, it looks simple and maybe even a little bit boring, but I assure you that it will expand what you thought was possible from a basic can of tomatoes. To make it, I’ll start with some kind of cured pork product. Traditionally, that’s guanchchal, which is cured and dried pork jaw. Guanchal is really fatty, though, so cutting it is very hard if it’s not hard. So, to firm it up, I’m going to throw it into the freezer for about 15 minutes.Oh, and by the way, I got this guanchchal at my local Italian market. But if you can’t find it, panetta or bacon would be a fine sub. Once the jowl is firmed up, I’m going to cut it down into 1/2 in thick discs. As you can see, it kind of looks like I’m struggling a bit here because it’s very firm from the freezer, but I would much rather have this pork be harder than softer. Cutting room temperature guanchal is very unpleasant and greasy. Next, I’m going to cut my pork rounds into strips, then turn 90 and cut into a clean, small dice.
Avoid large rustic chunks here if you can because those aren’t going to evenly render and then they’ll kind of stand out as flabby chewy bits in the final dish. In total, I need about a half pound or 225 g of small diced guanchal or some other kind of fatty cured pork. From here, I’m going to grab my heavy bottom pot yet again and drop it on the stove next to some boiling pasta water.
Once up to medium heat, I’ll drop in my diced guanch chal. Then add in a big splash of water. This water is going to help render the fat much faster and more evenly. From here, I’m going to slowly gently render the pork for about 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so to make sure that the meat isn’t getting too brown or crispy. All I want here is to fully render out the flabbiness and get a little development of flavor from the pork frying in its own fat. At around 10 minutes, the pot has started to glaze up with pork drippings.
And there’s a little bit of browning going on. So to arrest that darkening of flavor, I’m going to add in a splash of water to deglaze. Then I’m going to scrape that up. Man, this is looking really good. Now the pork is fully rendered and tender with zero flabiness. Next, I’m going to move this pork over to a bowl to hang for a sec while I cook the tomato part of this sauce. Back over medium heat, I’ll add in 60 grams of olive oil.
Then 200 gram of small to medium diced red onion, 20 grams of minced garlic, and a strong three-finger pinch of salt. Oo, I’ll also add in a little bit more water to loosen up the remaining porkiness stuck on the pan.
From here, I’ll just jump in and scrape that up and sweat the onions and garlic gently over medium low heat for about 5 to 10 minutes until things are nice and soft. At that point, things will look caramelized, but that’s just the meatiness from the pork coming up. Next, I’ll add in 20 g of finely chopped Calabrian chilies. Stir those in and then fry off with the aromatics. Again, if no Calabrian, chili flake, but you should just get them. Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Italian markets, international grocery stores, and Amazon all stock them.
They’re delicious. Get them now. Okay, chilies are sizzled and the oil is looking really flavorful. So, from here, I’ll add in 25 g of tomato paste. Then, stir in and fry for about 2 minutes or until it’s taken on a bit of a rusty color. Tomato paste is like tomato bouan. It increases the amount of tomato flavor instantly and substantially. I almost never make a tomato-based sauce without it because it ups the perceived tomatoiness of the sauce by at least 50%.
Once the paste is fried off, I’ll add in 100 gram of dry white wine. I’ll stir that in to delaze the pot. Then I’ll reduce until the wine is fully cooked off or until a sec, which is French restaurant speak for until dry. Once the alcohol is cooked off and the wine has reduced until my spatula leaves a little trail like this, I’ll add in one pureed can of nice tasting crushed tomatoes. Brandwise, I like Bianco DNapoli or Cento best.
Then 1 grams of oregano, 3 to 5 grams of sugar, and one more pinch of salt to season the tomatoes. From here, I’ll stir and bring up to a low simmer and cook for about 7 to 10 minutes while I drop one lb of pasta into my pot. In my kitchen, amatricana gets buatini. I love it because it has this tube shape and that brings a level of textural contrast and springy bite that spaghetti just doesn’t have. Before the pasta is done cooking, again, I’m going to reserve some pasta water for adjusting sauce thickness.
Then I’ll drain off the bukatini, throw it into the sauce. Then to finish, I’ll throw in a splash of the reserved pasta water and then 40 to 50 grams of grated pecorino cheese. From here, I’ll fold together until the cheese is melted and the pasta and sauce have unified into one beautiful thing. Of course, before serving, one last taste for salt. And I think this needs a little bit more sharpness from the pecorino and a tiny pinch more salt.
To serve, I’ll swirl into a bowl, then top with a couple of chunks of rendered pork and a little bit more tomato sauce. And then finally, a hefty dose of grated pecorino cheese. And that’s amatricana, the queen tomato sauce. For me, it possesses a depth and delicacy of flavor that you just don’t get from a basic marinara or a spicy arabiata. Bukatini is a beautiful slurping noodle. And texturally, when those two sides come together and get squished in between your teeth, it’s really, really special.
Flavor-wise, for a simple tomato sauce, there is a lot going on here. You’ve got the estestery sweetness from the wine. You’ve got onion, you’ve got garlic, you’ve got fruity chilies, you’ve got pork flavor, you’ve got just an overall beautiful, robust meatiness. At the end of the day, this is just tomato sauce, but honestly, it’s so good.
Alfredo E Pepe
Up next is a hybrid that smashes up two legendary sauces into one super sauce. I call it Alfredo E Pepe. It’s everything you could possibly want in a cheesy pasta sauce. To make it, I’ll drop 50 gram of butter into a warm pot and melt it. Then I’ll get a r going on by adding in 20 g of all-purpose flour, then whisking with a silicone whisk so I don’t scratch my duchie. Then I’ll stir this up until the flour is lumpless and unified with the butter. From here, I’ll sizzle this on low heat for about 1 minute to cook off the raw flour taste.Next, I’ll add in 500 gram of half and half while whisking to prevent lumps. I like half and half for this sauce because it’s richer than milk, so the sauce is a little bit creamier, but it’s lighter than heavy cream, so it doesn’t get too thick or gloppy. Half and half gives you that silky cheesy finish without overwhelming the other flavors. Once this sauce is up to a low simmer, you can see the flour has thickened things up. So, from here, the heat’s going to get turned down to really low or even off while I cook my pasta.
Over here, I’ll add in one lb of fetuccini. No, stop it, dude. It’s not time to become one of those guys that says Italian words with an Italian accent. But notice that while I’m adding it, I’m spinning it and twirling it. That’s because fetuccini loves to piss me off and stick together. So, I really go out of my way in the first 2 to 3 minutes of boiling to make sure that the individual pieces of pasta are staying separated. Back in the sauce, after about 5 minutes of gentle simmering, things have thickened and the stability is there to hold cheeses in emulsion without breaking. To finish, I’ll kill the heat, then add in 8 g of salt and 8 g of black pepper.
I prefer a coarser crack here because powdery black pepper can make the sauce kind of look like gray paint. Next, in goes 75 grams of grated pecorino cheese and 75 grams of grated Parmesan cheese. For this sauce, it’s really important that you grate your own cheese because pre-grated parmesan or pecorinos are usually covered in anti-caking agents which make them melt weird. Once the cheeses are in, I’m going to jump in with my whisk and stir until things are melted. The residual heat here should be more than enough to melt it all together, but if yours isn’t getting there, add in a touch more heat from the burner. Be careful though, because excessive heat can seize up the proteins in the cheese, which will make it grainy.
And after about 30 seconds, I’ve got a rich, peppery, sharp cheese sauce that is equal parts Alfredo and Kacua Pepe. Once the pasta is just a touch pastel dente, I’ll strain it off, then drop the fetachccin into the cheese sauce. Also, right away, I’m going to add in about a/2 cup of reserved pasta water because fetuccini is super thirsty and cheese sauces tend to thicken quickly, so we need extra water. From here, I’ll toss to combine. Then give the pot an aggressive little shimmy to release more starch so things get creamier and that much more silky. Texturally, I would say air on the side of being just a little bit thinner with the sauce because it’s going to thicken and you don’t want things to be overly gloppy.
To serve, I’m going to garnish with a bunch more grated cheese. Then give this about a dozen cranks of black peppy to bring the heat and to sharpen things up. Finally, I’ll hit it with a drizzle of olive oil to make it lean even more towards kacio. M. It’s so silky and creamy, but it’s not overly heavy. You get sharpness from the pecarino. You get some heat from the black pepper, or like a lot of heat from the black pepper. You get this bright green fresh tasting olive oil because we put that on top. And then the round umami flavor from the parmesan kind of ties everything together. It’s everything you want in a cheesy starchy pasta.
Pesto
Up next is a green pasta sauce called pesto. You’ve heard of that. Today I’m going to show you how to make a really good version of it. To start, I’ll put a 100 g of cubed parm into a food processor. I don’t like pre-graded parm because it makes a pasty pesto. The parmesan cubes break down into a coarse texture that gives the sauce a lot of textural interest and a lot more lively parmesan flavor.After a quick 30-se secondond pulse, when I stopped to take a look, you can see that this looks grally. That’s exactly what I want. The pieces look like Moroccan couscous or like soil. Next, I’ll add in 100 g of untoasted pine nuts, 125 g of olive oil, and 100 g of demmed fresh basil. Yes, that is a ton of basil. It’s basically two of these $7 clamshells. But to make a meaningful amount of pesto, you need a lot of basil. And the results here are going to be worth the investment of your $14.
Trust me. Also, no toasting on the pine nuts because in my testing, the flavor of the final pesto was basically the same whether the pine nuts were toasted or untoasted. The last thing in is 5 g of salt. Then I’ll pop on a lid and spin for about 30 seconds or until the nuts and basil are well broken down. A quick note, don’t over spin this because you’ll heat things up, which will round off the freshness of the $14 worth of basil and it’ll start to turn things brown. And stop. After about 20 to 30 seconds, you can see that we’ve got a super bright green pesto. Everything is broken down in here, but it’s not broken down so much that it’s become a paste.
It’s still saucy. If yours is looking a little bit too tight at this point, you could drizzle in a little bit more olive oil. To use this pesto, I’m going to drop one pound of spaghetti into a salty pot of boiling water. Oh no, that’s not how you do that, bro. Next, I’ll pour off the pasta water after reserving a little bit. Then, the pasta goes back into the pot. And then, I’ll drop in a ladle of pasta water to keep things loose. Then, I’ll drop in all of my pesto. There we go. From here, I’m going to whip things around a little bit to get the pesto incorporated and to get things sauced up. The parmesan’s going to start to melt a little bit, and that’s fine.
You don’t want a full melt, but a little bit will actually help the sauce cling to the pasta. And there we go. Emerald green pesto and spaghetti. M. You can actually see how the parmesan and pine nuts colluded to make things creamy. To serve, I’m going to twirl and twist it into a low bowl. Then top up with some grated Parmesan and a few chopped pine nuts to bring a bit of crunch to the top couple of bites.
I love this pesto for pretty much all pasta shapes, but it’s also great for white pizza or topping skin on fish like trout or salmon or putting on a salad with arugula, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. The thing that I love about this pesto in particular compared to some of the other pestos that I’ve made in the past is that this one is extremely basil flavored. The pine nuts, the parmesan, the olive oil, those taste good and they elevate the entire dish. But the first and last impression that you get here is herbaceious sweet fresh basil, which I love.
Mushroom Marsala
The last pasta sauce is the most decadent in this video. Mushroom Marsala. To make it into a medium heat Dutch oven, I’ll add 125 g of small diced onions, 20 g of minced garlic, a strong pinch of salt. Then I’ll stir to get those things sweating. Sweating is more of a mellow cooking process than sautéing or stir frying. With sweating, we want just enough heat to cook the moisture out of the onions. That moisture will then soften the aromatics as we cook them, which will keep browning at bay, which is what we want.After 5 minutes, we’ve got a soft, clear aromatic base with no caramelization. So, next I’ll add in 175 g of diced mushrooms and another little pinch of salt. After about 5 minutes, these mushrooms have sweat out their liquid and they’ve softened a little bit. So, next I’ll add in 2 g of chopped fresh thyme. Then, I’ll stir that in and continue to sweat things down for about 6 to 7 minutes over medium heat. I’ll call things good to go here.
When the mushrooms have shrunk by about half, the onions are totally soft, and there’s just a little bit of browning going on. From here, I’ll add in 125 g of Marsala wine and stir that in to delaze the stuck mushroom fond and to cook off the alcohol flavor. If alcohol is a no-go for you, use 10 g of wirch, a touch of sugar, and 100 g of beefto. Okay, once the pan’s scraped up and the marsala is cooked down until sack, like this, I’ll add in 200 g of heavy cream, and a small splash of water. Then bring the whole thing up to a simmer and cook down for 5 minutes.
If you’re wondering why I’m using cream over half and half, it’s because there’s no cheese in the sauce, so the extra fat in the cream is actually welcome. Now, while that sauce finishes cooking, I’m going to add in one pound of frozen raviolis to my pasta pot. Yes, I’m not ashamed to use store-bought stuffed pastas, especially ones from a nice Italian market. These are only like $6 a pound, and they are more than passable in terms of quality. Okay, back at the sauce, you can see that after a little bit of reduction, my spoon leaves a lazy trail when I pass it through. Again, we’re looking for a nape consistency here.
This thickness is going to grip the pastas beautifully. And I’m also going to just add a little bit more salt in. That’s going to do the trick before the pasta goes in. Okay, these frozen pastas are made with fresh pasta, which means that they cook really quickly. So, after 4 minutes, I’m going to lift them out, then drop them into my finished Marsala sauce. From here, I’m going to bring the sauce up to a very bare simmer and stir things to get the pasta bathed in the sauce. To serve, I’m going to pile some raviolis into a bowl, then shower with some parmesan.
Then just a little bit more mushrooms and sauce on top. Now, let’s taste it. What? It’s perfectly sweet from the marsala. The mushrooms are earthy. They’re perfectly cooked. There’s cheese inside the pasta. And the whole thing is coated in this satiny, beautiful cream sauce. I love it.