Can You Make Vodka Sauce Without Vodka?

There's just something about penne alla vodka, or disco pasta — it's the ultimate comfort food. The sauce is rich and smooth, and the shape of the pasta ensures that every bite contains a little treasure trove of hidden goodness. And if you're not a vodka drinker, don't worry — this dish can still be for you.

"Can vodka sauce exist without vodka?" sounds like an insoluble existential quandary, but it turns out there's a simple answer: yes! According to Chef Matt Harding, Chief Concept Officer for Piada Italian Street Food, this oxymoronic-sounding culinary creation can work either with or without alcohol.

For a non-vodka-based vodka sauce that still contains alcohol, try sherry. "Tomato and sherry are a marriage made in heaven," Harding told Food Republic, though he warns against adding too much, as it can overpower the dish. Harding also has a solution for those seeking an entirely booze-free sauce. "I've used white balsamic vinegar in place of the vodka, and it provides the umami boost to the sauce that brightens and adds a unique touch," he shared.

White balsamic is less sweet than its dark cousin, but those experimenting should start with smaller quantities than the allotted vodka amount and adjust to taste. While non-alcoholic, white balsamic is still fermented, so anyone avoiding all types of fermentation should consider alternative substitutions.

Deciding on your vodka substitute is important, but it's just one piece of the vodka sauce puzzle. A couple of keys to enriching a vodka sauce without vodka, according to Matt Harding, are: "Tomato paste, slightly caramelized, and developing deep flavor by thoroughly cooking the onions and garlic." The vodka in vodka sauce doesn't add its own flavor so much as it enhances the flavor of the other ingredients as it cooks out. Therefore, extracting every bit of goodness from the tomato paste and aromatics is key to making up the difference if your sauce lacks vodka.

Taking a tip from Ina Garten's vodka sauce recipe is another way to ensure you're reaching peak deliciousness. Garten adds an extra step to maximize the impact of her canned tomatoes by covering the pot and cooking it in the oven for an hour and a half after adding the tomatoes to the onions, garlic, and vodka substitute. This allows the natural sweet umami flavor of the tomatoes to shine, perfectly compensating for anything that might have been lost by removing vodka from the equation.

Once you've completed this step and added the dairy, the only thing left to do is decide which wine to pair with your non-vodka vodka sauce. A crisp white wine is perfect for the soft flavors of vodka sauce, though red wine drinkers can also opt for a fruity cabernet sauvignon.