Buon Appetito: Pasta with Hot Italian Sausage Sauce, Basil & Fresh Ricotta
This ridiculously impractical pasta has been sitting in my pantry for several years now (appetizing, I know). It's basically the length of spaghetti, but in a larger tube form, similar to mostaccioli. It seemed so cool when I bought it at an Italian market (that I can't even recall anymore), but in reality, I could never find any uses for it. Even in this dish, I probably should've broken them down into smaller pieces, but decided on just breaking them in half, which made consuming them quite comical (especially at work the next day).
I'd suggest any pasta but the one pictured. Mostaccioli would work quite nicely, as would bucatini or bowties. I know there are probably very specific uses for each and all sorts of guides on the internet to pasta usage, but I'm more about the eating than the reading when it comes to pasta. That probably makes me a bad {part} Italian. Oh, well. Buon appetito!
Pasta with Hot Italian Sausage Sauce, Basil & Fresh Ricotta
Serves: 2-3
Prepartion Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. Italian sausage (hot or mild will do, but I prefer hot!)
1 tbsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1 pint fresh cherry tomatoes (or use canned, which I rave about in many a posts)
2 cloves garlic, minced or sliced
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1-2 c. water (start with one cup first)
1 tbsp. honey or maple syrup
1 tbsp. dried parsley
1 bayleaf
1/2 lb. your favorte pasta
a drizzling of olive oil
small handful of fresh basil, hand-torn to release oils, for topping
ricotta cheese, for topping
Method:
1. Heat a high-walled saute pan and add Italian sausage. Flatten it out with a spatula to get ideal browning. Sprinkle with fennel seeds and red pepper flakes. Brown on both sides and remove from pan. Leave leftover grease in the pan.
2. Add cherry tomatoes to pan and start to saute. After a few minutes, add in garlic and tomato paste. Once the garlic turns slightly golden and the tomato paste becomes fragrant, add in about a cup of water. You can add more if needed as you go. Bring to a gentle simmer. Stir in honey/maple syrup, parsley and bay leaf. Continue to simmer, adding more water as necessary.
3. While the the sauce is simmering, make pasta according to package isntructions. Add the cooked Italian sausage to the tomato sauce about half-way through the pasta cooking time. Once pasta is al dente, remove from water, add to sauce and drizzle with a little olive oil. Stir to coat pasta with sauce and then top with freshly torn basil and ricotta cheese.
