Italian Sausage and Sundried Tomato Pasta

I guess we’re about to put the I in Italian because the next letter up for a feature is, of course, I. Surprisingly, my options for ingredients that start with I are a bit limited. Iceberg lettuce, doesn’t taste like anything, I suppose anything with the word Italian in the front could count for something like Italian sausage or Italian parsley, and there is ice cream…but perhaps that should be saved to have after dinner.

Just my luck, I had come across a recipe on TikTok, no less, for an Italian sausage and sundried tomato pasta. The dish seemed good and I’m always on the hunt for new pasta recipes so I thought I’d give that a shot.

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Serves 4

• Salt

• 1/4 cup finely chopped sundried tomatoes in oil plus 1-2 tbsp of the tomato oil.

• 1/2 pound ground hot Italian sausage

• 1/4 of a white onion, finely chopped

• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

• 1/2 tsp chili flakes

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• 1/2 cup dry white wine

• 1 1/2 cups low sodium beef broth

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

• 9oz fettuccine or any pasta

• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter

• A large handful of fresh spinach leaves

• Freshly ground black pepper

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1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

2. While the pasta cooks, heat the sundried tomato oil in a wide skillet until the oil starts shimmering. Crumble up the Italian sausage meat and sprinkle that into the pan then cook for about 5 minutes, breaking up the sausage as you do so, until the sausage is browned and no longer pink in the middle. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

3. In the same skillet, add the onion, Italian seasoning and chili flakes to the reserved sausage juices, then continue cooking for another 3 minutes, or until the onion starts to soften. Add the garlic, and cook a minute longer, or until fragrant.

4. Add the tomato paste, and cook until the paste starts to darken in color. Add the wine and scrape up the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Let the wine reduce by half, then add the beef broth, cream, sundried tomatoes and a big pinch of salt and pepper. Bring that to a simmer, then let it cook for about 10 minutes, or until thickened.

5. While the sauce simmers, boil the pasta for about 7-9 minutes, or until al dente, then drain.

6. Once the sauce has thickened, return the sausage to the pan, then add the pasta, cheese, butter, and spinach. Stir that around until the spinach is wilted and everything is coated in sauce, season to taste, then serve.