Sausage and Tomato Pasta

I love pasta! Always have and always will. My dream is to one day go to Italy and just eat and eat and eat, oh and of course do a little sight seeing while I am there as well. Lol. But mainly  I want to experience Italian food right from the source. In my fantasies you would never gain an ounce of weight eating your favorite foods. Hey, I can dream right?

I am always on the look out for a new pasta recipe and since I was craving pasta last night I searched high and low for one. I finally found one that looked interesting on Lidia Bastianich's website. I had some heirloom tomatoes that I purchased at the farmer's market last weekend that I needed to use and decided a tomato sauce would be the perfect place. I peeled and seeded the tomatoes first and then pureed them in the blender.
If you have never peeled a tomato before it is quite easy. You just score them with an X and drop them in boiling water for about 30 seconds. This loosens the skin and makes it easy to remove.

Now my tomatoes did not go to waste and they tasted really good in the sauce. This recipe was very easy to make and well worth the time it took. I love Lidia Bastianich. I used to watch her all the time on PBS and she always made me wish I was related to her. She has a warm and inviting personality and I always imagined dinner time at her house would be a hoot! I am surprised however that I have never made one of her recipes before.

It was well worth the wait. I am going to purchase some of her cookbooks in the future and try more of her recipes. If you want a delicious pasta dinner that does not take a long time to make you should give this one a try.

Sausage and Tomato Sauce
Lidia Bastianich

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs of Italian Sausage
1 c of white wine
2 T of extra virgin olive oil plus more for finishing pasta
2 c onions chopped
1 plump garlic clove peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp kosher salt plus more for pasta water
1/2 tsp peperoncino flakes
6 c of Italian Plum tomatoes crushed
1 branch of basil
1 c freshly grated pecorino

Directions
Crumble meat in a large bowl and add 1/2 c of white wine to it.

Mix it with your fingers until all is moistened.

Pour olive oil in big skillet and set on medium heat. Stir in onions and cook until softened about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic slices and peperoncino flakes until all is sizzling. Then crumble in the sausage.

(I added other vegetables in mine, mushrooms and squash as well as some chicken)
Pour in remaining wine, raise heat and cook until sausage is brown and the wine cooks away, about 10 minutes. Pour tomatoes and a cup of water in the pan. Submerge the basil branch in the sauce and bring to a boil and cover.

 Once it boils leave the lid ajar and lower the heat and simmer for about an hour or until sauce reaches desired thickness and develops its flavor. Remove basil branch and enjoy on your favorite pasta. Top with cheese.

Yum!
 I hope you will give this recipe a try and are having a great day!