Italian Sausage Pasta Primavera
Cooking Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 1 16oz Box Pasta, Bowtie, Linguine, or Fettucine
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 3 Tbsp Dry Cooking Sherry, (Optional. Substitute Vodka or White Wine for sweeter sauce)
- 1 lb Italian Sausage, Ground, Hot or mild.
- 1 Medium Sized Zucchini, Finely diced or processed
- 1/2 Green Bell Pepper, Cubed
- 1 Shallot or Small Onion, Diced
- 1 Medium Sized Carrot, Finely diced or processed
- 6 Whole Cremini (Baby Bella) Mushrooms, Finely diced or processed
- 3 Cloves Garlic, Crushed, then finely minced or processed
- 5 leaves Basil, Chiffonade cut
- 2-3 Sprigs Rosemary, Stripped and minced
- 3 Medium Tomatoes, Cubed
Instructions
- - Preheat a deep-sided frying pan or wok on medium heat.
- - Add Olive Oil to pan, then add sausage, green pepper, shallot/onion, and zucchini, and cook until sausage is browned, breaking up sausage into bite-sized chunks.
- Optionally, add Sherry/Vodka/White Wine , then simmer for 5 minutes. (for variety, substitute 1 small can tomato paste for a more tomatoey flavor)
- - Start water for pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions (optionally, add 2 tsp olive oil and 1 tsp coarse sea salt, and 1 bay leaf to water after adding pasta, and add 2tsp softened butter to pasta after draining) while preparing rest of recipe. If done properly, sauce and pasta should be done simultaneously.
- - Adjust saucepot heat to medium low, add the rest of the veggies and the herbs, and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes have rendered and sauce has thickened, about 20 minutes.
Serving Suggestions
Garnish with fresh parsley, grated parmesan or romano cheese, and serve with a side of cheesy garlic bread.
Tips and Tricks
- Stove temperatures vary; Make sure your simmer is below the spatter point, adjust heat as needed. Overheating and under-stirring gives a burned flavor that is singularly unpleasant.
- If you prefer a chunkier sauce, simply adjust the minced ingredients to a cubed or chopped preparation, and cook on lower heat for an additional 5 minutes or so.
- For a more tomatoey than meaty flavor, add a small can of tomato paste.
-This sauce freezes well, and keeps for months in the freezer. Very easily reheated.
- Optionally it can be prepared in the crockpot/slow cooker. Just pre-brown and break up the sausage, throw everything in the pot, and cook on medium for 5 hours, or low for 8.
- Enjoy! And let me know what you think!
