Vodka penne

Recently I have seen Donal Skehan on the TV and he is on twitter to.  And am loving his style of cooking.  So much I might of bought a book or two of his.  And very pleased I was I did to.  In one is a recipe for Vodka Penne, which turned out to be as quick as it took for the pasta to cook.  The recipe from the series is up here http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/652044 Although I halved it as just Luke and I home that evening.  So I give you the ingredients as shown on the website and original recipe and will tell you how we got on. Now usually I will have vodka in the house but I had to go and buy some for this as it turned out I had blackberry vodka, skittles flavoured vodka and vanilla vodka.  Now I have plain glorious vodka!

• 350 g penne
• 25 g butter
• 125 g pancetta, or bacon bits
• 4 tbsp vodka
• 200 ml double cream
• 3 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley
• freshly grated parmesan, to serve

As usual follow your pasta cooking instructions and in my case was boil in boiling salted water for 10-12 minutes, ours took 12. 

Meanwhile heat your butter on a medium heat and add the bacon pieces and stir and keep and eye on them until they turn golden. This took 4 or 5 minutes which was the longest bit to deal with.

Then add the vodka into the bacon pan and let sizzle for a minute or so ( we don't want to get drunk from it just celebrate its wonderfulness)

Then pour in the cream, tomato puree and parsley.  Stir to bring it all together and simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened.  Then season to taste.

When your pasta is cooked drain well and stir into the sauce thoroughly. Serve up in warm bowls with a grating of Parmesan and a little more parsley if you like.

Verdict on this was we couldn't place the vodka, and I may of put a little to much cream in, but it did add a something to the dish.  We added a little more pepper and all in all it was a very nice, rich bowl of pasta.  Will be more careful measuring out the cream next time.

I'm having photo problems,  I can put the same pictures on facebook and twitter and they will come out a lot sharper and clearer but now I put them on the blog and they seem to loose sharpness somehow.