Disclaimer: This recipe uses gifted products

About the recipe
A few weeks ago, Catelli® was kind enough to send me a bunch of their pasta! I always have a variety of pasta in my pantry because they are so practical, especially on busy week-nights. Here, I used their penne pasta to re-create Gigi Hadid’s viral penne alla vodka, using Catelli Smart®’s Penne Rigate, and one of my favourite staple ingredient: plain greek yogurt. My partner’s favourite pasta sauce is vodka sauce, so the pressure was on. Verdict: he said it was PER-FECT. Give it a try!
Jump to RecipeThe ingredients
In this penne alla vodka recipe, I used :
- Greek yogurt. This is my hack to not use heavy cream. Try replacing heavy cream with a mixture of half of milk and half of greek yogurt. It makes your sauces as creamy!
- Catelli Smart® Penne Rigate. Catelli was kind enough to send me a beautiful package, including this pasta. Catelli Smart® tastes just like traditional white pasta, but has added fibre, providing you with 35% of your daily recommended intake per serving (85g).
The steps
When using greek yogurt and milk, make sure you heat up the mixture before adding it to the pasta. If cold, the milks solids react due to the heat shock once they hit the hot pan, and almost curdles.
Jump to RecipeRecipe variations
You could leave the vodka out and deglaze the pan with water or broth.

Penne alla vodka
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked penne pasta (here, I used Catelli Smart®'s Penne Rigate)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 shallot finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes (or more, to taste)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp vodka
- ¼ cup greek yogurt
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup pasta water
- ½ tbsp butter
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- fresh basil to taste
Instructions
- Cook your pasta. Reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water.
- In a large saucepan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat.
- Add shallot, saute until it starts to soften. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, oregano, salt and pepper. Saute until soft.
- Add tomato paste and mix well. Cook for 2 minutes, or until slightly caramelized. Add sugar and mix well.
- Add vodka and mix. Cook until evaporated, for about 2 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together milk and greek yogurt. Heat in the microwave for 1 min. Add to the tomato base. Stir to combine.
- Add pasta, pasta water and butter to the pan. Stir until the butter is melted and the sauce is well incorporated.
- Add parmesan, and stir.
- Garnish with extra parmesan, fresh basil and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
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