Paccheri with Italian Sausage
Now that I had my homemade Italian sausage, I was dying to use it in a dish. This is an easy pasta that can be thrown together in literally half an hour. Served with simple garlic bread you’ve got a meal that will make you rethink eating out at local Italian restaurants.
I understand people’s love of Italian food. What I don’t understand is why people go out to mediocre Italian restaurants when most pasta dishes can be made far more delicious, not to mention far cheaper, with just a little work at home. I’m using my sausage tonight along with paccheri, a big tubular noodle, but you can make this same dish using any sausage and pasta shape you like.
which would be more traditional as well, I just have a hard time making small amounts of sauce, so I tend to overdress my pasta. Not a problem for me as long as I’ve got bread.
Ingredients
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lb Italian sausage
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbslp tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup milk
salt/pepper to taste
grated cheese (I’m using pecorino, but parm is also great)
chopped parsley for garnish
6 oz paccheri (or pasta shape of your choice)
Start by placing a small amount of olive oil (1 tbsp?), the sausage and the chopped onion in your pan. Break up the sausage as it heats up, then add the tomato paste. Cook this for 8-10 minutes, until the onions have softened and the sausage is cooked through. At this point I’d put a pot of water on to boil for your pasta.
Deglaze you pan with the red wine, and after it has cooked down (just about 2 minutes) add one small can of crushed tomatoes.
By this point, your pasta water should be boiling. Make sure you salt the water and put the pasta in, using the cooking time listed on the package. While the pasta is cooking, simmer the sauce, letting all the flavors meld. When there is about one minute left for the pasta, add the milk to the sauce and stir to combine. Then drain your pasta (reserve some of the cooking water) and add to the sauce. Cook for one more minute together, to get the pasta soaking up all that sauce, and if it gets too dry, add a little bit of the reserved pasta water.
"I understand people's love of Italian food. What I don't understand is why people go out to mediocre Italian restaurants when most pasta dishes can be made far more delicious, not to mention far cheaper, with just a little work at home."
This is the problem my husband and I have with going out to Italian restaurants. We almost never eat at them unless his parents–who love Italian food but don't really want to (or know how to) make it–decide the whole family should go out to one.
So, here's a question: the pasta water. I've seen that in many recipes. Does the starch help hold the sauce together? I pretty much never do it, because I never remember to try, and sometimes a pasta sauce will look beautiful in the pan but then turn watery on the plate.
The starch in the water definitely helps hold the sauce together, but only if it's not too wet to begin with. I like to take my pasta out just shy of done, then toss it with the sauce over the heat to let the pasta cook its last minute or so in the saucepan. That way it you are guaranteed it won't be runny on the plate. If your heat is high when you do that, you can dry out your sauce too much, the pasta water lubricates and the starch in the water holds it all together. Plain tomato sauce tends to be the worst for turning watery because there isn't much fat to hold it together either. That's another reason restaurants like to finish with olive oil or butter, it lubricates and makes an emulsion that keeps the sauce from getting watery. I like the flavor and texture of finishing with oil, but avoid it since my pasta dishes are fattening enough!