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Pasta Chicken

Penne Pasta in Creamy Vodka Tomato Sauce with Mushrooms

Published: Mar 21, 2015 | 44 Comments

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Penne Pasta in Creamy Vodka Tomato Sauce with Mushrooms – make your own vodka sauce from scratch! Easy, delicious, and so Italian! Perfect weeknight dinner!

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Want to make an easy Italian dish at home and impress your family, your friends, or your date? Then, this creamy vodka tomato sauce pasta is the right recipe for you!

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This pasta dish is packed with flavors (tomatoes, mushrooms, spices, and don’t forget vodka!), it’s very creamy, with just the right amount of “kick” (spiciness), topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese! The creamy vodka and tomato pasta sauce will please everyone!

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Because the sauce is made completely from scratch (no packaged sauces), you can easily convert this recipe to a gluten free one, just by using gluten-free brown-rice penne pasta (I used Tinkyada brand).

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Step-by-step photos to illustrate the cooking process:
In a large skillet, saute onion and garlic in olive oil on medium heat, until onion softens. Add tomatoes, vodka, crushed red pepper, basil, oregano – break tomatoes if necessary.  Bring the mixture to boil. Reduce to simmer and simmer, covered, occasionally stirring, for about 20 minutes or until sauce thickens. During the last 10 minutes, add mushrooms, and continue to simmer.

making creamy tomato sauce with mushrooms

At the end of 20 minutes of simmering, mushrooms should be cooked through, and sauce will thicken:

making tomato pasta sauce with mushrooms

While on low heat, add heavy cream and half & half to the sauce:

adding cream to the tomato pasta sauce - making pasta sauce from scratch

Stir everything to ensure even consistency. Add 3/4 teaspoon of salt or more to season the sauce. At this point, your sauce will acquire a nice color just like that:

how to make vodka sauce from scratch

In the mean time, cook pasta according to package instructions – add cooked and rinsed pasta to the sauce. Reheat the sauce on low heat to heat everything through:

adding pasta to the vodka sauce

5 from 7 votes
Print
Penne Pasta in Creamy Vodka Tomato Sauce with Mushrooms
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
30 mins
 

Mushroom Pasta in Creamy Vodka Tomato Sauce - make your own vodka sauce from scratch! Easy, delicious, and so Italian! Perfect weeknight dinner!

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 560 kcal
Author: Julia
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 onion , medium, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves , minced
  • 14 oz canned tomatoes
  • 3/4 cup vodka
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1 teaspoon basil , if you have fresh basil - use more
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 cup mushrooms , sliced
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup Half and Half
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 8 oz penne pasta (for gluten free version, use gluten-free brown-rice penne)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese , freshly shredded
Instructions
  1. In a large skillet, saute onion and garlic in olive oil on medium heat, until onion softens.
  2. Off heat, add tomatoes, vodka, crushed red pepper, basil, oregano - break tomatoes if necessary, and mix everything.
  3. Bring the mixture gently to medium heat. Reduce to simmer and simmer, on low heat, covered, occasionally stirring, for about 20 minutes or until the sauce thickens. During the last 10 minutes, add mushrooms, and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
  4. While on low heat, add heavy cream and half & half to the sauce and stir everything to ensure even consistency. Add 3/4 teaspoon of salt or more to season the sauce.
  5. In the mean time, cook pasta according to package instructions. Rinse cooked pasta with cold water and drain (this stops pasta from cooking and prevents it from being too mushy). Add cooked and rinsed pasta to the sauce. Reheat the sauce on low heat to heat everything through.
  6. Serve each plate topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Nutrition Facts
Penne Pasta in Creamy Vodka Tomato Sauce with Mushrooms
Amount Per Serving
Calories 560 Calories from Fat 180
% Daily Value*
Fat 20g31%
Saturated Fat 10g63%
Cholesterol 56mg19%
Sodium 701mg30%
Potassium 587mg17%
Carbohydrates 55g18%
Fiber 4g17%
Sugar 7g8%
Protein 13g26%
Vitamin A 880IU18%
Vitamin C 11.9mg14%
Calcium 183mg18%
Iron 2.3mg13%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Filed Under: Cheese, Dinner, Gluten Free, Mushrooms, Parmesan, Pasta, Recipe, Tomatoes, Vegetables Published: Mar 21, 2015 44 Comments

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Comments

  1. Eileen Lorson

    Nov 26, 2020 at 3:03 pm

    Great recipe – I didn’t make any changes ! Can’t improve on your recipes! I missed the instruction to cover sauce and it came out nice and thick. Thanks Julia

    Reply
    • Julia

      Nov 27, 2020 at 5:48 pm

      Eileen, you are very welcome! So glad you tried this recipe and liked it! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Samantha

    Apr 19, 2020 at 11:05 pm

    This is DELICIOUS!! Hubby and my 2 year old loved it. The only modification I did was substitute the vodka for chicken broth and it was sooo flavourful! Definitely a keeper!

    Reply
  3. Juliana

    Apr 12, 2020 at 11:46 pm

    omg anyone who doesn’t adore this recipe is crazy. So delicious and full of flavor. This may be my favorite pasta sauce of all time. I’m not even a mushroom fan, but this sauce is superb. Thank you Julia!

    Reply
  4. Pooja

    Sep 14, 2019 at 11:13 am

    So good and easy! It tasted even better the next day once all the flavors marinated. The mushrooms added such a good taste to it 🙂 Thanks so much for the recipe

    Reply
    • Julia

      Sep 28, 2019 at 2:21 pm

      I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂

      Reply
  5. Matt Deschenes

    Nov 24, 2018 at 6:15 pm

    This dish was amazing! Got beaucoup brownie points with the girlfriend after making this for her! She hates onions and mushrooms so i substituted zucchini and different colored bell peppers

    Reply
    • Julia

      Dec 04, 2018 at 12:04 am

      Thank you, Matt! So happy you enjoyed this recipe. Your substitutions are delicious!

      Reply
  6. Melissa

    Sep 12, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    Delicious! I used wine instead of vodka and substituted Greek yogurt and whole milk. I also added some tomato paste I had left over in the fridge and used fresh cherry tomatoes.

    Reply
    • Julia

      Sep 14, 2018 at 12:48 pm

      Thank you, Melissa, I am so glad you liked this recipe! Your substitutions sound delicious! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Carol

    Jul 24, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    Love this, I have made it many times. I have added hot Italian sausage, chicken and shrimp all where excellent additions

    Reply
    • Julia

      Jul 31, 2018 at 5:02 pm

      Thank you, Carol. So glad you liked it! Italian sausage sounds delicious in this sauce!

      Reply
  8. Carolyn

    Jun 13, 2018 at 7:56 pm

    This is a tasty recipe, but I think the directions may have had a typo? I simmered for 20 min with the lid on as directed but questioned the lid being on to thicken. Sauce was very soupy. Next time I’d cut the vodka in half and leave the lid off to thicken

    Reply
    • Veronica

      Oct 24, 2018 at 7:13 pm

      I was thinking the same thing. I thought the sauce was very watery and there was not much flavor to it besides the spiciness from the red pepper. Overall I was disappointed with the lack of flavor. I think adding some sausage to it would help liven it up.

      Reply
  9. Kris

    Jan 07, 2018 at 8:03 pm

    Seriously one of the best dishes I’ve ever made! Hubby said thumbs up!

    Reply
  10. Margaret

    Nov 24, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    Hi,

    My little 3 year old nephew is currently dairy intolerant. Do you think a milk alternative would work? If so, what would you recommend?

    Reply
    • Mary Lair

      Dec 10, 2017 at 9:35 pm

      Hi Margaret,

      I’m just another fan of Julia’s Pinterest site, was reading the reviews, and I saw your post, with your question as yet unanswered. So I thought I’d reply and hope you see this.

      For a great dairy free alternative when you’re cooking or baking, or for making beverages, smoothies, etc. which typically use ice cream or milk or heavy cream, I would try full fat coconut milk. It should work great for Julia’s delicious-looking homemade Vodka sauce recipe as well. I have found it to be a super alternative for heavy cream, 1/2 and 1/2 , and/or milk. There are many brands available of coconut milk, but my favorite full fat coconut milk is one that comes in a little 14 oz. carton from So Delicious. It’s my favorite. It is only 14 oz., but actually is the equivalent of 18 oz. coconut milk. I found it at WalMart. Also, of all the brands of full-fat coconut milk, the So Delicious one is so thick and creamy, it could really almost be classified as a coconut cream. I actually spoke to one of the So Delicious representatives about this and she concurred.

      Note: please don’t confuse coconut milk or coconut cream with the very sweet “cream of coconut” which is a totally different thing and used when making pina coladas and other miscellaneous pina colada-flavored recipes.

      Coconut cream and full fat coconut milk contain no sugar at all. It’s best to read the ingredient list to be sure. It’s a perfectly suitable substitution even when a recipe calls for for heavy cream. Although, when substituting for heavy cream it would be best to use coconut cream, if you can find it. But full-fat coconut milk is the easiest to find almost anywhere.

      As I’m sure you already know, it’s a great dairy free option for your nephew, and anybody who is lactose and/or dairy-intolerant.

      Hope this has been helpful.

      Reply
      • Jo

        Mar 11, 2018 at 9:21 pm

        I created this recipe using full fat coconut milk instead of half and half / heavy cream and it still turned out great! Thanks for the tip!

        Reply
        • Julia

          Mar 14, 2018 at 5:12 pm

          I am glad full fat coconut milk worked in place of half and half!

          Reply
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