I’ve been making this pasta dish for a number of years. I think I found the original recipe in a Food and Wine Magazine because that’s where I found this photo—mine vanishing into thin air with the recent website malfunction 🙁 The recipe calls for some cannelloni beans, but the kids just pick them out, so I no longer add them. I’m leaving them in the recipe below in case they grow up and decide that beans are a good thing to eat 🙂

This is a really good 45 minute refrigerator-to-table recipe, and it’s good enough for company! I’ve served it more than once to guests, and some of those guests have gone home with the recipe. Serve with a salad, some garlic bread , and dessert, of course!

45 Minute Pasta with Italian Sausage

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 shallot chopped, if you have it
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb Italian Sausage or Turkey Italian-style Sausage, casings removed
• 1 cup of red wine OR any kind of broth, even water
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 lb. Penne Rigate Pasta, which are thin tubes—although bow ties, elbows or any other pasta shape will work.
• 1 can cannelloni beans—optional
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil OR 1 tablespoon dried

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet until hot.
2. Add in chopped shallot (if using) and onion. Saute until limp and clear looking.
3. Add in sausage, or turkey sausage—be sure to remove the casings first!
4. With a wooden spoon, spatula or even kitchen scissors, break up large hunks of sausage into small bite-sized pieces.
5. When most of the redness of the sausage has gone, stir in 1 cup of red wine. Increase heat to high and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Stir in the crushed tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes.
7. During this 30 minutes, make the salad or the veggies and cook the pasta.
   • To cook the pasta bring salted water to a boil, add pasta, and cook for the time instructed on the package.
   • Drain pasta when done, reserving about a cup of the pasta water.
8. When sauce has simmered for 30 minutes, stir in drained pasta, drained cannelloni beans, grated cheese, and chopped or dried basil and simmer for 3 minutes.
9. IF the sauce seems too thick, stir in some of the reserved pasta water. You want the pasta to be perfectly coated and a little bit saucy—your personal preference will dictate how much pasta water to add, if any.
10. Serve immediately, pass more Parmesan cheese at the table, if desired. I always desire!

Thanks for stopping by!