Rigatoni alla vodka

This recipe for Rigatoni all vodka is one of our featured vanlifers favourite meals to eat in their bus Sweet Bea. Read their feature here.

Vodka sauce, at its base, is a tomato and cream sauce laced with a bit of red pepper and a splash of vodka. It is more of an Italian-American dish than proper Italian, though it did originate in the old country.

That origin is somewhat debated, though the story that makes the most sense to me, and one that I have read many times, has to do with simple economics. Back in the 1970s, vodka distillers were attempting to get their product to take hold in Italy. In addition to the typical advertising, they sought out the somewhat unusual path of trying to get chefs to use it in the kitchen. While this advertising route seems strange to me, it may have been what led to pasta alla vodka, which has quickly become one of my personal favorite meals to cook.

But the question stands, particularly if it was all a marketing ploy, does the vodka actually add anything to the sauce? The evidence appears to say yes. At low concentrations, alcohol increases the perception of aroma, so the splash of vodka serves to just bump that flavor meter up a notch. This is part of the reason why wine is often used in cooking. Additionally, the alcohol serves as an emulsifier, helping to keep the mixture of tomato and cream silky smooth.

Anecdotally, I have forgotten to add the vodka when making this dish in the past and not realized until I tasted the final product and found it a touch lackluster. I certainly didn’t think that splash of liquor would make much of a difference, but there you go.