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New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam vodka was my preferred alcohol during my early days of college, and somehow, I survived! New Amsterdam is as cheap and crappy as you can consume as a young college student. It comes in TWELVE different flavors (besides original): apple, coconut, grapefruit, tangerine, raspberry, red berry, watermelon, mango, passionfruit, peach, pineapple and lemon. Now, I’d be lying if I told you I tried every single flavor, but I’m sure we got close by graduation. In retrospect, it’s physically impressive we could drink at least 750mL of this liquor over a weekend and function by Monday morning; it’s even more impressive we could come up with a new concoction involving it every weekend. We’d mix this with some assortment of juice, soda, some other liquors and then slurp that down before you could blink, and you could bet your ass another round was coming and another…and another. New Amsterdam was easy to mix, provided optionality in flavors and no one batted an eye paying for it—that’s the beauty of the accursed liquid.
I look back at those early college drinking days and realize through our intoxicated, hedonistic nights there was some strange comfort in New Amsterdam. It was easy to convince peers it was tasty. It was easy to create community through the myriad of influenced alcoholic beverages. It was easy to transition from pregame to party. Although I wouldn’t recommend liquor—especially shitty vodka—as your place of comfort, I would recommend finding something that does bring you comfort. I’ve invested years, funds and emotions into finding my places of comfort. Flag football, touch rugby, reading, American football, volunteering at the food kitchen, karaoke and trivia are just a few of my comforts. And, of course, cooking is one of them, and I’m happy it’s a mostly healthy outlet. I suppose cooking can be unhealthy due to the taxing nature of prep and not eating the best foods for your body; but, how many times have you thought of cooking as a bad thing? Exactly!
Now, there won’t be any New Amsterdam in this recipe, but you could use it! I find this vodka pasta recipe to be pretty comforting as it is easy to make and very forgiving in execution. I hope you do as well. And, if you’re ever in a situation where New Amsterdam is around, pour it out and go make this pasta instead.
spicy vodka pasta recreation (from Joshua Weissman)
ingredients
the pasta:
1c/8oz. pancetta, bacon or guanciale (I used pancetta from Trader Joe’s again!)
2 spicy italian sausages, de-skinned OR 1/2c ground spicy italian sausage
5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 1/2t sugar
3T gochujang (I used gochujang from Trader Joe’s again!)
1c/8oz tomato paste
1T vodka (Tito’s..c’mon)
1/4c water
1 1/2c heavy cream
1lb. rigatoni
3/4c pecorino, grated
2T unsalted butter, cold
1/4c extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt & pepper to taste
parmigiano reggiano to taste, grated
extra virgin olive oil to taste
Helpful items:
large pot/dutch oven
large pan
wooden spatula
small/medium/large bowls
recipe (spicy vodka pasta):
Add water based on pasta’s packaged instructions, a few tablespoons of kosher salt and turn heat up for it to boil.
IF USING italian sausage: in a medium bowl, add de-skinned sausage and massage with hands to break it up a bit.
In a large pan set to medium high, add oil and allow to heat for 1 minute. Add pancetta to pan and cook 1-2 minutes. Push pancetta to side and add italian sausage. Allow italian sausage to cook on one side and brown and then begin to break sausage up with wooden spoon.
Once the pancetta and sausage is nearly cooked, add garlic and cook for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Add gochujang and tomato paste. Mix. Allow tomato paste to cook a bit without burning—turn down heat otherwise. Add water and vodka. Stir while scraping the bottom for that flavor and allow vodka to cook out.
You can add a bit of salt during Step 3, but I recommend keeping it to a minimum as the pancetta and gochujang is already pretty salty!
Add heavy cream little by little while stirring. Turn up the heat and allow sauce to reach a boil. Once the sauce has reached a boil, turn down heat and allow it to simmer on low. Add butter and pecorino. Mix well. Taste the sauce and add salt & pepper as needed.
This is when you can add the pasta to the boiling pot and cook based on packaged instructions to al dente. You want this pasta nearly done but not all the way because it will cook a bit in the sauce.
Add pasta directly to the sauce with a little water if the sauce is a bit too thick.
Add desired amount of the spicy vodka pasta to a bowl and top with parmigiano reggiano and a little line of olive oil. Enjoy!
