I’ve always been someone who spends hours making a tomato based pasta sauce. It’s how our mothers taught us to make sauce back in the olden days. The sauce was rich and thick and oozing with flavor. I still like that sauce but I found one I like even more. It’s made with tomatoes but it only takes about 20 minutes to prepare. Dinner in less than 30 minutes is a big winner for me and for every other working woman with a family.
Once you soften some chopped onion and garlic in a skillet, break open the sausage condom. (I know, I can’t help it – that’s what it looks like, you know it too.) Break up the sausage in the skillet. I used a potato masher to get the meat fine enough for sauce.
Cook til the meat is well browned and then toss in a tin of crushed tomatoes and the brandy or cognac and cook for about 10 minutes. While the sauce is cooking, heat a big pot of boiling salted water for the pasta and cook til al dente. I used zitoni – long artisan tubular noodles that really suck up the sauce. Any pasta with nooks and crannies to soak up the sauce would be good. This is a sauce you *don’t* want to leave in the bowl or on your plate. It’s delicious.
Once the pasta is cooked (but not overcooked) drain it and save about a cup of pasta water. Now you’re ready to finish the sauce.
If the sauce seems a bit dry, add some of the pasta water and then toss in the cream and stir around til the cream is heated through. Toss over the pasta, add some chopped parsley and dig in! The whole house smelled fantastic from the Italian sausage.
Here’s the recipe for the sauce.
- 1 finely diced onion
- 1 finely diced clove of garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 large Italian Sausagees
- ½ cup brandy or cognac
- 400 grams (one can) crushed tomatoes (polpa de pomadoro)
- ½ cup cream
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley or basil
- Cook onion and garlic in a skillet with oil until soft
- Remove skin from sausage and break up into skilled with onion and garlic. Mash sausages.
- Cook til browned.
- Add Brandy and tomatoes and stir to combine.
- Cook for 10 minutes while you cook pasta.
- Add cream and heat through.
- Pour over any suitable cooked and drained pasta.