What makes penne alla vodka so delicious? It’s all in the sauce.

By Eric Kim, The New York Times

In the 1980s, long before he became a New York chef, a young Iacopo Falai lived across the hall from a hip uncle who sometimes made penne alla vodka for dinner. The combination of tomato, cream and chile wasn’t traditional by any means, especially in Florence, Italy, where he lived, but his uncle was a travel-loving caterer who introduced Falai to a world of foods.

He had a particular point, Falai said: It doesn’t matter where a dish is made, as long as it’s delicious.

Some might assume that penne alla vodka is an ancient Roman pasta, but it gained popularity only in the 1970s and ’80s. The documentary “Disco Sauce: The Unbelievable True Story of Penne Alla Vodka” explores the dish’s many origin stories, from Italy to the United States, but none are definitive.

One of the first written accounts of vodka in creamy tomato pasta comes from the 1974 cookbook and memoir “L’Abbuffone” (later translated t...