Indulge in the delightful simplicity of this unique and delicious pasta dish featuring a savory white sausage sauce. This recipe offers a delightful twist to traditional pasta sauces, incorporating crumbled Italian sausage and butter to create a rich and flavorful sauce that pairs perfectly with ziti or any other cut pasta. The sausage imparts a burst of delightful flavors, while the butter adds a velvety richness, resulting in a delightful combination that will leave your taste buds craving more. With a quick preparation time of just 30 minutes, you can savor the comforting goodness of this simply made, unusual and delicious white sausage sauce pasta in no time.
MAKES: About 4 servings
TIME: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
- Salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 8 ounces sweet or hot Italian sausage, removed from the casing
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound ziti or other cut pasta
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt to it.
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. As it melts, crumble the Italian sausage into the skillet, ensuring the bits are relatively small, about 1/2 inch or less. Add 1/4 cup of water and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle bubbling. Cook the sausage until it is tender and fully cooked, approximately 5 minutes. If desired, you can make the sauce in advance up to this point and refrigerate it for up to a day. Reheat it gently before serving.
- While the sauce is cooking, prepare the pasta in the boiling water, cooking it until it is tender but not mushy. After draining the pasta, reserve about a cup of the cooking water. Toss the pasta with the flavorful sausage sauce, adding some of the reserved cooking water as needed to create a smooth and well-coated consistency.
- Taste the dish and adjust the seasoning with freshly ground black pepper as needed. Toss the pasta with freshly grated Parmesan cheese to add a delectable finishing touch.
- Serve the pasta with white sausage sauce hot, and enjoy the wonderful combination of flavors and textures that this delightful and unusual sauce brings to your table.
VARIATION:
PASTA WITH WHITE SAUSAGE SAUCE AND GREENS:
- For an extra nutritious and vibrant twist, incorporate your favorite greens into the dish. Options like escarole, broccoli raab, arugula, spinach, kale, or chicory work well with this variation.
- Prepare the greens by blanching them in the boiling pasta water for no more than a minute (spinach or arugula requires only 20 seconds). Immediately transfer the blanched greens to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Once cooled, squeeze out excess water and roughly chop the greens.
- Return the pasta water to a boil, and continue with the original recipe. When cooking the sausage, add the cooked greens to the sauce along with the water in Step 1. This will infuse the dish with additional flavor and nutritional goodness, creating a satisfying and wholesome pasta meal.
Feel free to get creative with these variations, adjusting the ingredients and flavors to suit your preferences.
