Why You Don't Need Expensive Vodka For The Best Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce

The next time you have guests and you're thinking of impressing them with a rich, flavorsome vodka sauce, it could be a mistake to reach for your most expensive bottle of vodka. When you pay extra for vodka, it's to enjoy all those subtle flavors that can really be appreciated when sipped neat or in a cocktail, but those nuances are lost once the vodka is heated with tomatoes, cream, herbs, and all the other ingredients of a vodka sauce. A more midrange bottle, such as Smirnoff or Tito's, does exactly what the recipe needs without the price tag.

The reason for this is simple: vodka's job isn't to make the sauce taste of vodka, but to release flavor compounds in the tomatoes that dissolve better in alcohol than they do in water or fat, which creates a richer, more rounded sauce. Then, as the vodka cooks off in the heat, the alcohol evaporates altogether. This is why the perfect pairing of vodka and tomatoes has stood the test of time.

While there's no reason to splash out on a premium bottle when making vodka sauce, if you reach for cheap vodka instead, the sauce may have a harsher finish or a sort of chemical edge, even after it's simmered down for 30 minutes. The best idea is to stick to a clean, midrange vodka instead of the most expensive or the cheapest. That means no risk of lingering, unpleasant tastes, plus you don't waste your money unnecessarily on something that just gets cooked off anyway.

With a splash of midrange vodka added to your sauce, the next most important step is let the vodka simmer for several minutes so the alcohol has a chance to interact with the flavors of the tomatoes before it evaporates. That way, the finished sauce doesn't taste of vodka in any real way; it's just richer and more balanced.

The origins of vodka sauce may remain a mystery, but there's nothing mysterious about how well a modestly priced bottle of vodka can improve a creamy tomato sauce. Save the pricey bottles to serve your guests a good vodka cocktail, and thank us later.