Fresh Pasta with Sausage in Red Sauce

This is a really good, really easy meal. I made this while my folks were in town and even added a breaded chicken cutlet. Today, I just made the pasta and sauce.

You can use dried pasta of course, but making it is so easy and I really do think that it's superior to regular store bought pasta. Please see my post on fresh pasta here. The biggest change I've taken from that post is that I fold over the rolled out noodles like a letter (in thirds) instead of rolling it before cutting, but for all intents and purposes, it's the same. 

I got a wild hair this morning to make a pasta drying rack. I just took a branch from out back, drilled some holes in it and cut some plastic hangers to fit. 

It turned out great and I recommend using something like this (you can just use regular hangers hung throughout the house) to dry your pasta as I think the texture is really nice. If not, just lay it on a sheet pan to dry or use it straight from making it.

Anyway, on to the recipe.

This is pretty much Mario Batali's "basic" marinara sauce with Sweet Italian Sausage added to it. It's really easy and really flavorful.

The ingredient list is pretty short:

Fresh Pasta with Sausage in Red Sauce

1 large onion, diced finely

1 medium carrot, grated

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1, 28oz can of crushed tomatoes (or diced)

1/4 cup of white wine 

2 teaspoons fresh thyme, minced

1 teaspoon fresh basil, minced

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper

3 Sweet Italian Sausage links (just over 1/2 a pound or so), casings removed

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Begin by prepping your veggies.

Go ahead and get a medium saucepan over medium/high heat with the olive oil and maybe a big pot of water on the boil.

Once the oil gets up to temperature, toss in the onions. Give it a teaspoon or so of salt.

Add the grated carrot.

Add the garlic. I don't chop it too fine as I like the chunks. 

Next, add your herbs

Love having a garden!

Let all of your veggies cook until everything is pretty soft. Took me about 15 minutes. 

While that's cooking, get your sausage taken care of.

Get the casings off the sausages by slitting down one side and peeling them off.

Toss them into a pan over med/high heat.

Cook until no longer pink. I tried to keep it chunky. 

Drain and set aside.

 

Add the can of tomatos and the wine to the onions.

Get that up to a boil and add the sausage, then drop to a simmer. I let it go for about 10-15 more minutes for everything to mingle. 

Check for salt and pepper. I added about a teaspoon of salt and 1/2 a teaspoon of pepper but it may depend on the type of sausage you have.

When you are about 8-10 minutes out from service, get your pasta in the water. 

Since mine was dried pretty well, it took 8 minutes or so to cook the pasta. 

Serve it American Style with the sauce over the noodles with some nice grated parm. 

This was a really great version of a traditional dinner. Really easy to make and elevated by the fresh pasta. I thought it was killer. 

Enjoy!