PENNE ALLA VODKA
WITH CHICKEN
This is about as easy as marinara variations get. There
are various stories for where the sauce got its origin—
some say it was at New York restaurant Orsini in the
1970s, others claim it was a marketing trick devised by a
vodka company in the 1980s. Either way, there are some
very good culinary reasons why adding vodka to a sauce
can make it more fragrant. As we learned while searching
for the ultimate chili (see here), alcohol is more volatile
than water, which means that at a given temperature, it’ll
produce more vapor, helping aromatic compounds from
the food leap off the plate and into your nose, where you
can smell them. A classic pink sauce, this also
incorporates cream, its richness rounding out the acidity
of the tomatoes. Adding slivered chicken to the mix turns
the dish into a hearty meal.