A staple in American Italian restaurants, and on my dinner table too. Creamy tomato sauce is one of those things that feels like a special night out no matter how often you make it. And since the invention of cashew cream, there’s no reason that every night can’t feel indulgent. This is the ultimate vegan penne alla vodka. So grab your sauté pan, and get ready to smell like garlic for a week.
I love how cheffy this recipe is. You’ll learn to build a sauce from almost nothing. Garlic, shallots, tomatoes, a splash of vodka, and a handful of techniques: that’s the whole game. Once you have this down, you can build a hundred sauces.
It’s also a recipe that goes where the wind takes you. Vegan meatballs, grilled tofu, roasted broccoli, sautéed mushrooms. Pretty much anything you can think to put on top of pasta works here. I’ll put a few ideas below.
Here’s What’s In The Dairy-Free Vodka Sauce
Refined coconut oil. I use it to sauté the shallots because it resembles butter a little more than olive oil does. I realize coconut oil is soooo not Italian, but vegans do things a little different. Make sure it’s refined so you don’t get any coconut flavor.
Garlic. I slice it rather than mince it, so it gets fabulously caramelized and turns into little garlic-bite flavor bombs throughout the sauce.
Shallots. Sweeter and more delicate than yellow onion, and they melt right into the sauce. Slice them thin so they cook down quickly.
Crushed tomatoes. The backbone of the sauce. A 25-ounce can is what you want here. Look for a brand with no added seasonings so you can control the flavor.
Salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Standard sauce seasonings. The red pepper flakes give it a low background heat, not spicy-spicy, just a little warmth. And you need fresh black pepper, too, because you just do. Your cousin didn’t buy you that pepper grinder as a birthday present for no reason.
Vodka. It’s right there in the name, but I have a few things to say about it in a minute. Why to use it: it pulls flavors out of the tomatoes that water can’t reach, and gives the sauce that signature vodka sauce bit. The alcohol cooks off, for the most part.
Still, my hot take: you don’t absolutely need vodka for a vodka sauce. You can use a cup of white wine instead for that depth. And if you don’t want to use any alcohol at all, totally fine. Use extra broth. Most people when they think of vodka sauce are thinking of the creaminess, not necessarily the alcohol. Okay, hot take over.
Penne. The ridges and the tube shape are perfect for catching the creamy sauce. Rigatoni works too and sometimes is even better because it bags more sauce.
Whole unroasted cashews. Blended with broth, they become the cream. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times, cashews are indistinguishable from dairy in sauces like these. When you start swirling the cashew cream into the red sauce it’s like “OK give me my Michelin star now, jabronies.”
Vegetable broth. Thins out the cashews into a pourable cream and adds a little savory depth.
Fresh basil. Half goes in the sauce, half goes on top. Don’t skip it, and don’t use dried here, the scent of fresh basil is heavenly at the table, and we need more moments like that in our lives. They said we eat with our eyes first, but surely we eat with our noses second, then.
What To Serve With Vegan Penne alla Vodka
Chickpea Cutlets – kind of my answer to everything, but hey, if the cutlet fits. Throw them together while the pasta water is boiling and you should have everything on the table at the same time.
Grilled Tofu – I need to put my Italian Grilled Tofu on the site. If you have Vegan With A Vengeance, the recipe is in there. But use your fave grilled tofu that leans Italian or Mediterranean.
Golden Savory Baked Tofu – Use this recipe. It tastes like parmesan already. (Formerly known as Noochy Baked Tofu, same recipe, new name.)
Roasted Broccoli – Here’s a recipe for it, I need to update that page some day. Roasted cauliflower or brussels are amazing, too.
Chick’n Tofu Cutlets – A golden crisp thing over creamy sauce never fails to satisfy.
Tofu Ricotta – If you don’t feel like heating anything up, mashing up some tofu with lemon, nooch and olive oil is utterly delicious and looks stunning scooped over the pasta. Use the recipe here. It might make more than you need but you will find more uses for it during the week.
Meatballs! – I love penne and meatballs. Sue me. I have tempeh versions and tofu versions but I think any meatballs from the frozen aisle is cool, too.
More Easy Vegan Pasta Recipes:
Vegan Penne Alla Vodka FAQ
Can I mince the garlic instead of slicing it? You can, but you’ll lose those caramelized garlic-bite flavor bombs that make this sauce special. Minced garlic will dissolve into the sauce and give it more of a uniform garlic flavor, which is fine, just different. Use about 4 to 6 cloves garlic if you’re mincing and you only need to cook them for like 30 seconds before adding everything else.
Can I use a different kind of canned tomatoes? Yup. Whole peeled tomatoes work great, just crush them with your hands or a wooden spoon as they cook down. Diced tomatoes will give you a chunkier sauce, but it’ll still taste good. Fresh tomatoes won’t work the same for this recipe without some big changes that are too much to address here.
Can I make this nut-free? Yes! Swap the raw cashews for raw sunflower seeds. Boil them for 20 to 30 minutes first to soften, then drain and blend with the vegetable broth just like you would the cashews. The sauce will be slightly less neutral than the cashew version, but it’s still creamy and delicious.
Can I make penne alla vodka without vodka? For sure. Use a cup of white wine for that same flavor depth, or skip the alcohol entirely and use extra vegetable broth. Most of what people love about vodka sauce is the creaminess, not the booze.
Do I have to use a high-speed blender? Not strictly, but the cashews need to be silky smooth or the sauce will be grainy. See the note above about boiling the cashews first if you’re working with a regular blender.
How did I get here? You were looking for vegan penne alla vodka, dairy-free vodka sauce, cashew cream pasta, vegan penne, or some variation, and Google sent you my way. Welcome. This is the creamy, dreamy, restaurant-style vodka sauce I make on repeat, with cashew cream standing in for heavy cream and sliced garlic doing flavor-bomb duty throughout. Bookmark this. You’re done looking.
Penne alla Vodka With Cashew Cream
Notes
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons refined coconut oil
- ¼ cup thinly sliced garlic
- ½ cup thinly sliced shallots
- 1 25-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup vodka
- 1 pound penne pasta
- ½ cup whole unroasted cashews if you don’t own a high-speed blender, see note
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- ½ cup sliced fresh basil leaves
Instructions
- In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of salted water to a boil for the pasta.
- Preheat a large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Melt the coconut oil in the pan and immediately add the garlic, flipping it often until lightly browned on both sides, about 2 minutes. Add the shallot and a pinch of salt, turn the heat up to medium, then mix everything together and sauté until the shallot is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and scrape the bottom of the pan to make sure everything comes together. Add the salt, red pepper flakes, black pepper to taste, and the vodka. Bring to a steady simmer and allow the alcohol to cook out, 7 to 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, boil the penne according to package directions until al dente. Finish everything else while the pasta cooks.
- Place the raw cashews and vegetable broth in a high-speed blender and blend for about a minute or until completely smooth, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides every 20 seconds or so.
- Add the cashew cream and half of the basil to the sauce (reserve the rest of the basil for garnish). Mix well.
- Use a slotted pasta spoon or large wire skimmer to fish the penne pasta out of the water and stir it into the sauce. Continue to simmer until the pasta is fully cooked and the sauce is clinging to the penne, 3 to 5 minutes. Serve in a dish or bowl, topped with the reserved fresh basil and freshly ground black pepper.
