Twinkle lights, crisp rose and vodka sauce pasta. Excuse us while we sigh in nostalgia! This long-simmered sauce will shoot you to Italian grandmother status in no time. This recipe was part of a sweet Italian-themed “pasta party” we threw for some of our favorite women entrepreneurs working in food in our city. It was the most special evening! We want to show you how to recreate this simple Italian pasta party to enjoy good food and good people. Ready? Want a quicker spin? Try Tomato Cream Sauce, made in half the time!
An Italian dinner party menu
This Italian dinner party menu is all about simplicity! While the vodka sauce pasta takes about 1 hour to simmer, it’s mostly hands off! You can put it on the stove and let it simmer while you make the rest of the recipes and preparations. It’s truly all about the goodness of simple, high quality ingredients. Here’s our simple Italian dinner party menu:
Vodka Sauce Pasta (recipe below!) Favorite Chopped Salad Cheese plate Fruit plate with sliced green apple and grapes Rose wine
Tips on how to make vodka sauce pasta
Want the secret to Italian grandmother style vodka sauce pasta? Simmer the sauce. For 1 hour! You won’t see a lot of 1 hour simmers here on A Couple Cooks. Because our core passion is fast and easy dinner recipes. But guess what? Even more than fast and easy, we’re obsessed with flavor. This vodka sauce pasta is so seriously full of flavor, it’s worth every second of that simmer. And what says “you’re special” more than a 1 hour simmered pasta? Here’s another secret. Because this pasta sauce is mostly hands-off, it’s actually an easy recipe. Here are some tips on how to make vodka sauce pasta:
The only thing you’ll need to cut is garlic! If you need to brush up on your knife skills, here’s How to Mince Garlic. Use quality vodka: and don’t worry! It’s safe for kids. You’ll want to use the good stuff here! Don’t worry, the alcohol cooks away, leaving a tangy back-end flavor. Simmer with a halved onion. To get onion flavor without onion in the sauce, you’ll simply simmer the sauce with a halved onion: then remove it after the simmer. Fresh basil is a must. Trust us. The Italians know best! Blend, then melt in the Parmesan cheese (not cream). Some vodka sauces use heavy cream, but the Parmesan carries the show here.
Pasta party prep tips
Now, dinner parties aren’t just about recipes: they’re about setting a beautiful table too! Luckily I had Alex to help me and he thought of some really fun decoration ideas. Here’s what we did to make a lovely setting for our vodka sauce pasta with friends:
Use tomato cans as vases! The most fun idea for reuse: save your tomato cans and use them as vases! Here we filled them with flowers from our yard. Add a simple white table runner and candles. Besides this, our only decoration was a simple white table runner down the center of our table, and some white candles as a centerpiece. Ball jar drinking glasses make a nice touch. These blue Ball jars are our everyday glasses, but the color makes a nice pop for a tablescape. Twinkle lights are a must. All we know is that all food tastes better under twinkle lights! Unless it’s not outside dining weather, in which case you can make it up with more candles.
Here’s how we phased out our party prep. Alex and I did all the table decor first, then made the vodka sauce. We let that simmer while we prepared the salad and got together the cheese plate and appetizers. The pasta portion of the vodka sauce pasta I boiled up right after guests arrived: that way the pasta would be perfectly hot and al dente.
Our party guests
For our Italian dinner party, we wanted to enjoy vodka sauce pasta and give a little thank you to some women entrepreneurs working in food in our city. These women are part of the Indy Women in Food organization that works to connect women business owners in Indianapolis to empower them and encourage collaboration. These dear friends of ours are working hard to make our city a better, more equitable place. Make sure follow along with these incredible women and their stories:
Tanorria Askew, personal chef and MasterChef finalist Candace Boyd Wylie, food blogger and spice brand owner Ashley Brooks, culinary consultant and founder of Garfield Park Farmer’s Market Lauren McDuffie, cookbook author & food blogger
Looking for pasta recipes?
Want a few other options that work great for pasta parties? Try these great pasta recipes:
Simple White Sauce Pasta has an amazing basic cream sauce that everyone will love! This Cheese Tortellini in Creamy Marinara is the best quick dinner recipe Our friend Erin’s Chicken Pesto Pasta is packed with flavor This Best Gouda Mac and Cheese makes a huge pan Mushroom Pasta with Goat Cheese is a total fan favorite This Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta is almost like mac and cheese! Sneak squash into this silky smooth sauce.
This vodka sauce pasta recipe is…
Vegetarian. For gluten-free, use gluten-free pasta.
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Last updated: May 2020
