Pasta with Sausage, Pepper, & Onion Rosé Sauce

I love the combination of fried peppers and onions - served over steak or chops, with beans and sausage, or as here, with pasta and sausage.

The sausage can be whatever kind you like, although I don't think I would go for anything sweet. The seasonings I suggest give it a hot Italian vibe, which you should likely not do if your sausage is already hot Italian.

I was greatly dismayed when I added the tomato sauce to the cream sauce, because it promptly broke (curdled, that is to say) even though I was being very careful to keep the heat low. I guess it was acidic enough it didn't matter. Fortunately, as it thickened up it pulled itself back together and was smooth enough to be fine by the time I was ladling it over the pasta. So don't worry if yours does that too. It will be okay in the end. 

4 to 6 servings
45 minutes prep time

2 medium green peppers
2 medium red peppers
2 medium onions
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
500 grams (1 pound) raw pork sausage
1 teaspoon coarsely ground fennel seed (optional)
1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes (optional)
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups 10% cream
2 cups tomato sauce
330 to 500 grams (10 ounces to 1 pound) stubby pasta

Wash, core, and cut into small strips the green and red peppers. Peel the onions and cut them into slivers. Peel and mince the garlic.

Cut the sausage into small bite-sized pieces.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the sausage, with a little water to cover the bottom of the pan if required to keep it from sticking as it gets started, until browned all over and mostly cooked. Add the seasonings towards the end, taking very much into account how much and with what the sausage is already seasoned.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta. 

Remove the sausage to a bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving the drippings in the pan to cook the peppers and onions. If there is not enough fat you can add a little more bacon fat or oil to make it sufficient. If there is too much, remove the excess but I suggest the longer term solution would be to change your source of sausage.

Cook the onions and pepper over medium heat until softened and greatly reduced in volume. They can brown a little but don't let that happen too quickly. When they have but a minute or so to cook before you would call them done, add the garlic and mix in well.

This is probably the time to add the pasta to the boiling water, assuming it requires 10 to 12 minutes to cook.

Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and mix in well until it is evenly distributed and no white powder is showing. Pour in the cream and mix very well. As soon as it begins to thicken, mix in the tomato sauce. Add the sausage back into the sauce. Continue simmering gently and stirring regularly until the pasta is ready. Drain the pasta and put it in individual dishes or a serving dish, and apply the sauce to it as you will.




Last year at this time I made Turkish Eggplant & Potato Kofte.

Posted in: Ontario Food