How to Make Penne Shrimp with a Vodka Sauce

How to Make Penne Shrimp with a Vodka Sauce Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes Ingredients: 1 lb pasta 28 oz peeled plum tomatoes ¼ cup basil 1 lb shrimp ½ cup vodka 6 tbsp heavy cream Chris: Hi, my name is Chris. This is my wife Rita Marie. She’s allowed me in the kitchen today. And we’re going to cook a penne pasta and – Rita Marie: --shrimp in a vodka cream sauce. Usually I don’t let him in the kitchen because he likes to add too much fattening stuff like butter and oil. I like to control the food. Chris: That’s not the only thing she likes to control. Rita Marie: Okay, we’re going to use the T-fal ultimate fry pan that has this sensor in the center that when these lines changed then I know that it’s hot enough. Chris: It also its gap proof which is great. The heat indicator is perfect for letting me know when the temperature is just right for cooking to begin. Also, it’s scratch resistant because I usually get caught using the metal fork or something like that. Rita Marie: And you can put it in the dishwasher which is the best part of the gap proof. And to get started we’re going to go ahead and put it on medium heat and we’ll wait for the sensor to change. And while I’m waiting for the pan to heat up I just went ahead and poured in the pasta. I’m using the penne pasta, the whole wheat kind. We like using that but really any pasta will do. Chris: One pound. Rita Marie: Yes, we need one pound. Chris: The pan looks like its ready. If you want to come and take a look you can tell the lines are gone and it’s kind of a dull white which means the temperature is right for cooking. Rita Marie: And we’re going to start by putting a 28-ounce can of peeled whole plum tomatoes. Let’s pour that in. Now, the heat is still moderate and we’re going to let that come to a boil. While we’re waiting for this to come to a boil and for Chris to work we’d like the tomatoes chopped. So I’m going to get him to chop them up a little so they’re just smaller pieces. Chris: Now we’ll be adding the minced—chopped basil and it should be how much was it, a quarter cup? Rita Marie: Yes, ¼ cup. Make sure it’s fresh and then we’re going to let this simmer. So I’m going to turn this down a little bit. Reduce the heat and let this simmer for 15 minutes. We’re going to mix some of the basil. Put that in there. Chris: And while Rita Marie is stirring in the basil and letting the tomato sauce and basil simmer I was going to show you how to devein shrimp. Now this shrimp here, it’s been nice, they’ve already done a butterfly cut. But if you notice the vein is still in there so if these weren’t already butterfly cut, I would go ahead and take the shell off but you can see the veins are there. I’ve got a little paring knife and then after you do your butterfly cut you reach in and grab the vein like so and then you can just pull that right out and I pretty much got that one. Rita Marie: The sauce has been simmering for 15 minutes. So now it’s time to add our other ingredients. Chris: Which I’ve got the good stuff. This is a vodka cream sauce. So obviously we got to have some vodka. Now, what I’m going to be using, I’ve got a double shot glass that about two of this is the equivalent of a half cup. So we’ll be adding that in. Are you sure you don’t want an extra one? Rita Marie: A little more. Chris: A little more? Rita Marie: Yes, a little bit more. All right, and then we also need to add 6 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream. So put that in there, mix that together and we’re going to let that simmer for 3 minutes. You can see how the sauce changes to a pink color. Cook long enough for the alcohol to burn off. Chris: And now that our sauce has simmered for 3 minutes it’s time to add in the shrimp. Now, we’ve got a pound of the deveined shrimp that we worked on and I’m going to add that in, just watch out, don’t splash. Usually a splashier at this point and then she gets mad at me. And what we’re going to do now – this probably is going to take about 3 minutes. The sauce is already really hot, so it’s going to take about 3 minutes and the shrimp will turn like a white opaque pinkish color and then we’ll know they’re done. Rita Marie: It’s time to add the pasta. It’s a pound of pasta. And Chris I need you to stir in. Chris: Okay. Now, pasta is one of our favorite dishes especially before a run. We’ve both participated in a few half marathons. Rita Marie: And I’ve done a marathon. Chris: Yes. She’s done a marathon but that’s okay, I still got to beat up to the 10K point. This looks good. Rita Marie: It does. Keep stirring. Chris: Well, as you can tell it looks done and we’re getting ready to enjoy the best part, eating it. Rita Marie: I like to garnish it with the remaining –well I actually cut up some more basils, some mints basil, and just put a pinch or two. It’s a nice little touch. It adds a little more flavor. Chris: Very good.