Penne alla vodka is a pasta dish made with vodka and penne pasta, usually made with heavy cream, crushed tomatoes, onions, and sometimes sausage, pancetta or peas.
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Origins
The exact origins of penne alla vodka are unclear. In her book Food for Friends, Barbara Kafka writes the dish was common in Italy before becoming popular in America in the early 1980s. Grappa, essentially a grape-based vodka, is occasionally used as an emulsifier in Italian cooking.
There have been multiple claims to the invention of the dish. According to Pasquale Bruno Jr., author of The Ultimate Pasta Cookbook, penne alla vodka was invented at Dante, a restaurant in Bologna, Italy. Other historians of the culinary arts recognize James Doty, a graduate of Columbia University, as the inventor of penne alla vodka. There was also Luigi Franzese, a famous Manhattan chef in the 1970's, who has also claimed to have invented penne alla vodka. According to the Franzese family, Luigi created the dish on a whim while cooking tableside for a group of esteemed guests in Manhattan. However, Luigi did not call the dish penne alla vodka at the time (rather he called it vodka alla russia); the name 'penne alla vodka' caught on some time after he did various radio interviews explaining the dish.
The Williams Sonoma Essentials of Italian cookbook states that it was invented in the 1980s by a Roman chef for a vodka company that wanted to popularize its product in Italy.
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Composition
Along with the penne pasta, this dish generally contains cream sauce mixed with tomatoes or red sauce, which are a combination unusual in Italian cooking because the acidity of the tomatoes tends to make the oil in the cream separate. The vodka serves as an emulsifier, allowing the water and lipids to remain mixed together. It is also thought to release certain flavors from the tomato that would otherwise be inaccessible. This is seen in other vodka sauces, as well.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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