South Jersey Food Photographer | NJ Food Photography |  Pinterest  Recipes

Today is the first day of fall.  I had planned on baking some fabulous apple or pumpkin goodness. But life had other plans.  I didn’t have time to do much food prep today.  Taking photos of baking means lots of time for cooling. And as the famous saying goes”Aint no body got time for that”. I decided to make this pinterest dish I had been eyeing up.  Vodka Sauce with Bleu Cheese.  I couldn’t decide if it would be amazing or horrible.  I am always down for an experiment and the recipe seemed relativity easy. I decided to give it a whirl.

The result: it was ok.  It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. It just was.  If you look at the link it appears she used a fancy block of bleu cheese.  I have the stuff in the container from the store.  That could have been the difference.  This recipe has the potential to be awesome and easy.  There was just something missing in my dish. If I find myself with left over bleu cheese from Lizzie’s famous grands muffins bleu cheese bread (ok maybe its only famous in my house and the places I bring it for football sunday) I can see myself trying it again.  Maybe adding more of it will give the dish what it was missing for me. I also would definatley add zucchini and whatever else I have on hand to make it healthier. I feel like a meal with no nutritional value to speak of is a waste. Just hand me ice cream instead.

If you think this is something you will like; go for it. It wasn’t bad. But I can’t say I love or crave bleu cheese. I basically only care about with with Lizzie’s bread. Otherwise it’s hit or miss for me.

Recipe copied exact from pinterest link above:

Ingredients

• 500g of dried pasta- I used orecchiette

• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you want some spice in it!)
• 1/2 cup of vodka
• 2 400g (14oz) cans of crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup of plain passata / tomato sauce
• 225 / 8g blue cheese (I used Stilton)
• 1/4 cup of cream
• 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese (I used Aldo Zilli’s hard Italian cheese)
• A couple handfuls of chopped fresh basil

Instructions

1. Gently fry the garlic, dried herbs and chili flakes over a low heat until fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Be careful not to let the garlic brown or burn.
2. Add the 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and vodka.
3. Simmer on low heat for around 1 hour. If you don’t have time, it’s OK to skip this part, but give it as long as you can.
4. Add the blue cheese and stir in until fully melted.
5. Add the cream and parmesan.
6. Now is a good time to start cooking your pasta
7. Keeping the heat low, simmer for another 10-15 minutes, or as long as it takes your pasta to cook to al dente.
8. Add the fresh basil and salt and pepper to taste, before mixing into the pasta.