Gnocchi alla Vodka

Another favorite around Castle Von Rock is gnocchi with vodka sauce, based on one of Emeril Lagasse's recipies available on Food Network's website. Since I'm sure re-printing it is probably gonna get me in trouble, I'll leave it up to you to go read the recipe itself and then I'll show you how I make it. Also you should know that the recipe as written on the website is for one serving, I quadruple that for a family size dish. Ready? Ok, here goes.

First, prep work. Part of developing your skill in the kitchen is making sure you have the right tool for the job. The right knife goes a long way towards making things easier. My steel of choice? The Calphalon Katana 8" Chef's. The blade and handle are well balanced, and the bolster is shaped to allow you to easily hold the knife in the 3-finger "pinch" grip. Yes I know Guy Fieri uses one. Yes, he's a human singularity of infinite suck. Shut up.


Chop yer onion.

Peel the garlic and chop. The best way to peel garlic is to crush it under the flat of your knife. Put it under the side without the edge, and give it a smack. Once you've peeled it, mince it.

I also had a red bell pepper from the garden laying around, so I decided to give that a chop and toss it in too. Red bell pepper should perfectly compliment the vodka sauce's sweet and spicy flava combo.

Now that we're done playing with knives, heat up some extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet.

Brown the Italian sausage. No pink. Brown. Also, having the right wooden spoon for a job like this can really save you a set of aching hands. For what it's worth, after trying many other, lesser spoons, I read a recommendation in Cook's Illustrated for Mario Batali's 13" wooden spoon. I picked one up at Lakeside Mercantile for an extremely reasonable price, and it's been utterly fantastic. This dish isn't so bad, but man, my Macaroni and Cheese takes a lot of stirring and is super thick, and this spoon handles it without so much as a twinge in my poor, football shattered hands. Now is probably a good time to put on the water for the pasta, depending on how long your pot takes to come to a boil. The idea here, again, is to have the pasta come out at the same time or after the sauce.


When the sausage is completely browned, add the onion and pepper. Also a good time to add the salt, freshly ground pepper, and pepper flakes.


Saute until the onions start to turn yellow. Add the garlic and cook it until your kitchen smells awesome, around 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes.


Stir everything together and bring the sauce to a simmer. Simmer for around 4 minutes, and then add your vodka.


And now the cream.


Stir to combine, give it a minute or two to hang out, which should be just enough time to prep and add your basil chiffonade. I pulled some straight from the garden. Let's see, here we've got standard basil, Thai basil, strawberry plants, cilantro, and some overhanging gladiolus.


This should be plenty.


Chiffonade, and into the pan. Stir to combine, and there you have it: Vodka sauce.


If I was looking to make an afternoon of this, I'd have made my own gnocchi, but I didn't feel like it today. So, store-bought it is. Look for them in your grocer's freezer section. Russo's has great gnocchi, we particularly love the Asiago cheese ones. 3 1/2 minutes in boiling water.


Drain, put them in a bowl, cover with sauce, and top with a little chiffonade as garnish. Friggin delicious.


If you have extra sauce, that stores well in the refrigerator for a couple of days. The gnocchi's texture will suffer a bit. Enjoy!