The Ultimate delicious, easy pasta that cooks in minutes and tastes like home.
Pasta with sausage, sauce and herbs, so simple and quick; so easy it’s almost not a recipe. And seriously delicious! Summer, like the rest of the year, seems to be a time when everyone is moving in different directions in our family. This pasta has been on repeat for occasions when we find ourselves coming together again, and don’t necessarily have the time or energy to cook something elaborate. It was my father-in-law who came up with the name – I think it’s perfect.
I first made this for dinner in June when we had been out of town for a few days, and upon returning, stopped by a farm on the way home from picking up our dog. The market has the most incredible produce, meats, cheese, eggs, etc… It was the only stop I needed that night to cure our empty fridge situation, and inspire the pasta recipe here. I threw in a spinach and cucumber salad and dinner was done in about 15 minutes. I should mention that my 12 year old son has perfected this recipe too – it’s that simple.
The recipe works with whatever kind of sausage you choose – just remove it from the casings and crumble it as you brown it with the onions. You could use ground meat as well (chicken, pork, beef), and just add some extra seasoning to amp up the flavor – I would suggest oregano, garlic, and more red pepper flakes. You could also keep it plant based and just use some chopped zucchini in place of the meat.
Welcome Home Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- 3 links of sausage - chicken or pork, spicy or sweet About 1 - 1 1/2 lbs total
- 1 small white or yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 28 oz jar of Rao's Marinara Sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish
- 1 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lb. dried pasta
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan, plus more for garnish
Instructions
- Boil a pot of water for the pasta.
- Break the sausage meat out of the casings. Heat a large stock pot or a dutch oven over medium high heat, and add the olive oil. Add the sausage, breaking up as you cook it almost all of the way through. When almost done, add the onion to the pan, continuing to break up the sausage meat. The idea is to give it a similar consistency to ground beef almost, so the sausage is distributed throughout the sauce at the end.
- When the sausage is fully cooked, and onions translucent, add the garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and cook for one minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add the jar of sauce, and simmer over low heat while the pasta cooks.
- Cook the pasta according to package directions, al dente. Drain when finished, reserving a cup of the cooking water in case you want to thin the sauce. Add the cooked pasta directly to the sauce in the large pan, stirring to combine. Thin to your liking with the starchy pasta cooking liquid.
- Turn off the heat, and add the parmesan, basil, and salt and pepper again if needed. Likely you won't need much extra seasoning, with the sauce and sausage. Serve in large shallow bowls with extra parm and freshly torn basil. I like a little extra red pepper flakes on mine.
Notes
3 Comments
I can vouch for this as well. Karen made it for us when we had just returned from a trip and I have made it since…….delicious!!!
Great call on Rao’s sauce. I can, as well as you, spend 12 hours making a proper sauce but who has time during the week.Rao’s is my go-to weekday sauce. Thank you @walestable for suggesting a wonderful compliment to the sauce.
Rao’s = how I get through hockey season!