Spicy Rigatoni with Sausage
Rigatoni pasta with sausage in a spicy and creamy tomato sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 1b. Rigatoni pasta
- 1 tbsp. olive or grapeseed oil
- 1 lb. Italian Sausage mild or spicy. I use mild.
- 1/2 cup dry white wine white cooking wine, or a dry white like chardonnay or pinot grigio
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 1 tsp. salt recommend kosher salt
- 1 tbsp. garlic minced or chopped
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
- 4 ounces tomato paste
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp. fresh basil chopped
- 1 tbsp. fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Cook rigatoni pasta until al dante, according to package instructions. When pasta is ready, reserve 1 cup of pasta water. Drain pasta and set aside.
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add Italian sausage, and use spatula to chop into small pieces. Cook until sausage is slighlty brown. This should only take about 3-5 minutes. Transfer sausage to a plate or bowl.
- Reduce heat to medium and add white wine wine. Add onion and sauté for 1 minute. Stir in salt, garlic, oregano and crushed red pepper. Continue to stir for 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Stir until the contents of the pot is fully coated with the paste for about 1-2 minutes. The color will get darker.
- Stir in cooked meat until coated with tomato mixture. Pour in heavy cream, stir together and bring to a simmer. While simmering, stir in butter, parsley, basil and Parmesan cheese. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sauce will slightly reduce and deepen in color. Add about 1/4 cup of the pasta water and stir. Depending on the consistency you want your sauce, you can add more if you like. Taste and add more salt if you feel it needs it.
- Stir in cooked pasta and serve. Garnish with more Parmesan cheese if you like.
Notes
- If you want your dish to be very spicy, replace mild Italian sausage for spicy. You can also add another 1/4 tsp. of crushed red pepper, but remember crushed red pepper can be very spicy if you use too much.
- I recommend using kosher salt for this recipe. Kosher is not as salt as other salts like sea salt and table salt.
- If you are vegetarian, simply remove the sausage and this recipe will be just as delectable.
- If you are vegan, remove the sausage and replace the cream with coconut milk. Also, remove the butter and substitute it for olive oil.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!