Before it became a beloved Italian American icon, penne alla vodka was merely an infuriating variation on another classic dish.
Supposedly, it descended from the mother of all angry pastas: penne arrabbiata, a pasta served with a marinara-like sauce with chile flakes whose name translates directly to “angry penne pasta.” The addition of vodka to this recipe appears in L’abbuffone, a bizarre cookbook written in 1974 by famed Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi and one of the subjects of Roberto Serrini’s irreverent documentary Disco Sauce: The True Story of Penne Alla Vodka. Tognazzi’s sauce calls for only freshly peeled tomatoes, garlic, oil, and a special Polish chile vodka that Tognazzi calls “formidable, terrible, very strong, very hot, and deadly.” The presence of this unique, aggressive vodka led Tognazzi to bestow his pasta creation with a curious name: penne all’infuriata, or “furious penne pasta.”
While less known for its spiciness than its spirit (and generous dose of cream) these days, penne alla vodka has become a fixture of old-school Italian American restaurant menus for decades—and it’s a crowd favorite for a reason. Unlike a Bolognese, the sauce doesn’t require hours of slow simmering on the stovetop. It’s both creamy and light, straddling the line between a luscious Alfredo and a bright, zippy marinara. And now, as it’s hitting its pop culture peak, the angry sauce is storming off once again, leaving the pasta in the dust.
Most versions of this classic rely on a handful of ingredients: tomatoes, cream, garlic, onions, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and, of course, vodka. Besides Tognazzi, many others have claimed ownership of vodka sauce. Law professor Paula Franzese, daughter of chef Luigi Franzese of New York’s Orsini Restaurant, has claimed that her father invented the dish in the 1970s. Meanwhile, some culinary historians believe that a Columbia University graduate named James Doty created the dish in the 1980s. Others stand by its Italian roots. Pasquale Bruno, author of The Ultimate Pasta Cookbook, argues it originated at Dante, a restaurant in Bologna. The authors of the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Italian cookbook say it was the result of a Roman chef wanting to popularize vodka among Italians.
Regardless of how it came about, it’s hard to deny that vodka sauce is a triumph of flavor balance. The dairy tempers the acidity of the tomatoes and adds richness, the pungent alliums contribute some bittersweet notes, and the parm brings umami cheesiness to the party—while the small amount of vodka enhances the overall flavor and aroma of the sauce. Indeed, Harold McGee notes in On Food and Cooking that vodka “actually enhances the release of fruity esters and other aroma molecules into the air.” Translation: The vodka makes your tomato sauce taste even more tomatoey.
While penne is the classic pasta pairing, the sauce has enough personality to be its own main event. Cookbook author Ali Slagle swaps the penne for chickpeas and hearty greens in her take on the iconic dish. Food YouTuber and cookbook author Eitan Bernath substitutes vodka sauce for marinara sauce in a classic lasagna. And if you head over to TikTok, you’ll see influencers slathering canned butter beans and chicken parm with their own versions of vodka sauce.
Of course, variations on vodka sauce abound too. Scott Tacinelli, who owns and operates Manhattan’s Don Angie with his wife, Angie Rito, has put vodka sauces on his menus in several ways: as a white vodka sauce that uses crème fraîche and caviar, and in a lobster dish with smoked chiles. At Elina’s, an Italian American restaurant in Chicago, chef-owner Eric Safin’s vodka sauce includes fermented and crushed Calabrian chiles finished with a sprinkle of breadcrumbs.
Meanwhile, LA’s Pijja Palace does a South Asian take on vodka sauce with its malai rigatoni, which combines a tomato masala with cream and coriander. “People love cream and tomato. There’s just so much umami in both of them,” says owner Avish Naran.
Though usually eaten with something, vodka sauce also offers a surprising potential as a soup, and Safin has a few suggestions for the home cook. He recommends whisking in some lobster shell stock, replete with the sweet and salty flavors of the sea, to transform the heavy sauce into a heavenly bisque. Combining vodka sauce with other stocks—such as vegetable or chicken—can additionally lead to more soupy creations, especially one reminiscent of a tomato soup served with grilled cheese.
Some cooks have even tried replacing the traditional vodka with more flavorful spirits. Don Angie’s early versions of lobster alla vodka included mezcal to add a smoky element. Similarly, home cooking YouTuber Ethan Chlebowski experimented with different spirits and concluded that gin imparted more botanical notes than vodka. Back at Elina’s, Safin goes as far as to eliminate the namesake spirit from the dish—and he still calls it “vodka sauce.”
Home cooks wanting to experiment will find that it’s the perfect pantry pasta sauce. A barebones recipe might call for a can of crushed tomatoes, a cup of heavy cream, a whole yellow onion, garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano, red pepper flakes, and vodka, a combination as simple as it is delicious.
But vodka sauce can be much more than this, even with a few small tweaks. Drizzle it on homemade pizza or roasted eggplant, smear it on a plate with broccolini, slather it inside meatball sandwiches. Whether you like it over penne or made anew with creative flavor and ingredient combinations, this creamy orange sauce is here to stay.
