A throw-together lunch, started cooking at 2.18pm, plated at 2.32pm. Shot at 2.38pm, ate at 2.50pm. It doesn’t get any faster than this!!

I first tried vodka tomato cream sauce in a Te Anau restaurant, many many years ago. I remember it was the first time I was hit with this obsession to learn how to recreate a dish. AAAAAAND I couldn’t believe how easy it was!

There are a few variations but I’m using what I have and most importantly, J approves. I made the squid ink garganelli the night before and froze it. These only took a few minutes to cook, straight from the freezer.

To make squid ink pasta, I added 10g of squid ink to my Egg Pasta Dough base, along with the eggs. Next I rolled out the sheets to setting 5 and cut into skinny strips. I laid these haphazardly on plain egg pasta dough sheets (rolled to setting 5) and pressed them down to stick. This zebra-lined double sheet is then fed through the pasta rollers again to setting 6.

Here’s a video of me rolling them out

Glad to have J at home, shoots come together super quickly.

Ingredients

• 1 portion Squid Ink garganelli
• 10 rashes of streaky bacon, roughly chopped
• 1/4 of red onion, diced
• 50g LRC garlic & parsley butter
• 200ml vodka
• 200ml chicken stock
• 3 tbsp tomato sauce
• 125ml LRC double cream
• A few leaves of fresh basil, to garnish

Instructions

1. Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add bacon and fry it off for a few minutes. Add red onion and butter, gently sautéing for 3 minutes.
2. Add vodka to the pan, and let it reduce for 2 mins. While simmering, add chicken stock, tomato sauce, and season with pepper.
3. With a saucepan of boiling water ready, add pasta and cook for 3 minutes, until al dente.
4. Add cream into sauce and turn off the heat when it comes back to a bubble.
5. Strain cooked pasta straight into the sauce, stirring to coat. Add extra pasta water to loosen the sauce if required. Add basil leaves and serve.