Chicken and penne in vodka cream sauce

serves serves 4 , active time 45 min­utes, total time 45 min­utes

• For The Gar­lic Parme­san Toast:
• 1 baguette, cut in half then halved length­wise
• 8 table­spoons (4 ounces) unsalt­ed but­ter
• 14 cloves gar­lic, minced or pressed through gar­lic press (about 1/4 cup)
• Kosher salt
• 3 ounces parme­san, grat­ed (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh pars­ley leaves
•  
• For The Pasta:
• 2 table­spoons unsalt­ed but­ter
• 4 small shal­lots, minced (about 1/2 cup)
• 4 medi­um gar­lic cloves, minced (about 4 tea­spoons)
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled toma­toes packed in juice
• 2 table­spoons toma­to paste
• 1/2 tea­spoon red chili flakes
• 6 table­spoons vodka
• 1 tea­spoon gran­u­lat­ed sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 pound bone­less, skin­less, chick­en breasts, sliced cross­wise against the grain into 1/2-inch thick strips
• 1 pound dried penne pasta
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Pro­ce­dures

1. Pre­pare Gar­lic Bread: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle posi­tion and pre­heat oven to 400&degF. Line rimmed bak­ing sheet with foil. Place bread on sheet cut side up.
2. In small saucepan over medi­um heat, melt but­ter with gar­lic. Cook until gar­lic is fra­grant and has soft­ened slight­ly, about 4 min­utes. Spoon gar­lic but­ter over bread and sea­son with salt. Sprin­kle with Parme­san. Set aside.
3. Make the Pasta: Bring a large pot of salt­ed water to a boil over high heat. In large skil­let over medi­um heat, melt but­ter. Add shal­lots and cook, stir­ring, until soft­ened and just begin­ning to brown, about 8 min­utes. Stir in gar­lic and cook until fra­grant, about 30 sec­onds.
4. Trans­fer shal­lot mix­ture to blender. Add toma­toes (with juice) and toma­to paste. Blend until smooth.
5. Trans­fer toma­to mix­ture back to skil­let and stir in chili flakes, vodka, 1 1/2 tea­spoons salt, and sugar. Bring to boil over medi­um heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and sim­mer, stir­ring occa­sion­al­ly, until slight­ly thick­ened and fla­vors are meld­ed, about 15 min­utes. Stir in cream and sea­son to taste. Stir in chick­en and cook until just cooked through, about 2 min­utes. Keep warm while pasta cooks.
6. Cook pasta accord­ing to pack­age direc­tions. Mean­while, place gar­lic bread in oven and bake until cheese is start­ing to brown, about 10 min­utes. Remove from oven and sprin­kle with pars­ley. Drain cooked pasta, reserv­ing 1 cup of pasta water. Toss pasta with sauce, adding pasta water as nec­es­sary until sauce reach­es desired con­sis­ten­cy. Sea­son to taste with salt and pep­per if nec­es­sary. Stir in basil. Serve pasta and bread imme­di­ate­ly, pass­ing addi­tion­al cheese table­side if desired.