Kendra’s Homemade Pasta with Vodka Sauce

I’m so lucky to work in the food industry, as it happens, it attracts lots of foodies. Every quarter during my team meetings, I have one of my team present a Pecha Kucha. It’s a 20 slide presentation presented at the pace of 20 seconds per slide. It can be any topic, literally anything. One of my team members, whose dad was a professional chef and caterer growing up, chose to present “How to Make Pasta from Scratch” and all of us sat in awe as she broke down what we anticipated being a very challenging dish into 2o slides. After her Pecha Kucha, another team member asked if we could do a team-bonding activity around the Thanksgiving holiday and learn how to make pasta together. Needless to say, I was ALL THE WAY IN. So the recipe that follows is a shockingly easy, yet oh-so-impressive party trick: pasta from scratch, with a homemade vodka sauce. Buon appetito!

What you’ll Need:

• For the Pasta 

• 4 cups of all-purpose flour 

• 3 eggs 

• 2 cups water 

• 1 cup olive oil 

• For the Homemade vodka sauce

• 1/2 white onion, chopped

• 2 tbs butter 

• 1/4 cup tomato paste 

• 1/4 cup of vodka 

• 1/2 cup half and half

• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

How to Make:

• First, let’s prepare our flour and egg well.

  • On a clean workspace, make a well with the flour. Your goal is to keep the walls of this well in-tact for as long as possible. With your well walls high, dump yolks and whites in the center. Using a fork, roll the flour from the well wall into the egg yolk and back towards the wall in a sweeping motion. Continue this motion, working from one side of the well to the other, moving clockwise, until you’ve combined all of your flour and egg together and only a “shaggy” dough remains. Note: if your dough is too dry, use a teaspoon of water or olive oil until desired texture is achieved.

• Next, combine the dough into a shaggy dough ball.

  • Using your hands, press the dough, continuing to work it and bring it together into a ball. A few presses should do just fine, you don’t want to overwork it. Once the dough comes together, shape it into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap to let rest.

• While your dough rests, boil water and put together our Vodka Sauce.

  • In a large pot, bring 16-24 cups of water, with a dash of salt, to a boil. This will be where you boil your pasta.

  • In a saucepan, over medium heat, add 2 tbs of butter and onions, sautéing until soft. Then, add in tomato paste, stirring until combined. Pour vodka over the onion and tomato mixture, letting it sizzle, smoke, and reduce by more than half. Once reduced, slowly add in half and half, stirring vigorously. Once half and half is combined, slowly add in parmesan cheese, stirring until combined. Turn down heat and keep warm while you finish your pasta.

• Return to your dough to prepare it for becoming pasta.

  • Unwrap dough ball. Using a rolling pin and a floured workspace, flatten dough ball into an oval disk, rolling it until you’ve achieved your desired thickness. Using a knife (or pizza cutter), cut pasta.

• Finally, cook noodles and add to sauce!

  • Cook noodles in boiling water for 1 minute, until al dente! Transfer noodles to Vodka Sauce pan and mix until combined. Transfer to serving plate and garnish with parmesan cheese.