Cooking Lite

Lite Spicy Tomato-Vodka Sauce

Cooking notes: The meat in this recipe calls for using turkey products to save on calories and fat. Example: chopped turkey pepperoni slices.

I thought the sauce tasted fine by adding no meat and I used it as a vegetarian dish. The sauce was served over penne pasta.

Another option for meat would be to use 1lb. of Italian Sweet Sausage cooked and crumbled into small pieces.

At first I thought ½ cup vodka seemed like a lot so I went with 1/3 cup but it cooked down nicely when simmered for 30 minutes.

The recipe called for 1 ½ tsp. red pepper flakes which I did not have so substituted green and red pepper. Adding pepper flakes would kick the flavor up a notch.

The sauce is enough to serve 6-8 and I thought the recipe was easy and it can be made in about 30 minutes

Directions : Heat in a skillet 2 TB. Olive oil

Add and sauté about 3 minutes

• ½ cup sweet onion chopped
• ½ cup green pepper chopped
• ½ cup red pepper chopped

Add in the following and saute 1 minute

• 1 TB. minced garlic
• 1 ½ tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1/4 cup tomato paste

Cooked meat can be added at this point

Add the following and bring to a boil and reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes until liquid reduced by half then discard bay leaf

• 2 cans of chunky basil-oregano-garlic tomatoes
• 1/3 –1/2-cup vodka
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp salt

After sauce has simmered 20 minutes stir the following in and simmer on low heat about 10 minutes

• 1 TB. balsamic vinegar
• 1/3-cup heavy cream
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Recipe adapted from Cuisine Magazine February 2011