Pasta with Homemade Cherry Tomato Sauce and Italian Sausage
This incredibly flavorful and naturally sweet tomato sauce is made simply with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and a hint of basil, combined with savory Italian sausage, all served over al dente pasta.
Servings: 4
Calories: 1138kcal
Ingredients
- 1½ lbs sweet Italian sausage removed from casing
- 3 lbs cherry tomatoes
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 8-10 leaves basil, minced
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1 lb pasta such as rigatoni or penne, cooked to al dente
- parmesan shaved or grated for serving
Instructions
- Bring a large sauté pan to medium heat. Add the Italian sausage breaking it up into smaller pieces with a firm spatula, stirring occasionally until cooked through, 10-15 minutes. The sausage should not only be cooked through, but it should be left long enough for the fat to start to caramelize. Remove and set aside.
- Add the olive oil, cherry tomatoes, and salt, and cover at just under medium heat for 10 minutes (a setting of “4” out of “10”). Remove the lid, stir, and add the garlic. Stir occasionally. As the cherry tomatoes break down, press the tomatoes down with the back of a slotted spoon or spatula to release the juices. Simmer on low for another 10 minutes.
- Remove the tomatoes, add them to a blender and blend until smooth. If desired, strain through a fine mesh strainer (I prefer straining the sauce for an ultra smooth consistency to remove any tomato skins and seeds).
- Add the sauce back to the pan along with the basil. Stir and simmer on low for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened. This should result in 4½ cups cherry tomato sauce.
- Add the sausage to the pan and stir to combine. Serve the sauce over the pasta and top with shaved or freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Notes
- Cherry Tomatoes: For a really great sauce, choose cherry tomatoes from your garden, local farm or farm share, or cherry tomatoes called Hiiros sold by Nature Fresh Farms, which can be found at Costco and Whole Foods. Though they are significantly less expensive at Costco.
- Italian Sausage
- I prefer sweet Italian sausage for this recipe rather than hot Italian sausage, but you could use either. I also recommend buying uncooked sausage and removing the meat from the casing to chop up in the pan and add to the sauce. However, you could use precooked sausage (either pork or chicken) and slice it into rounds, then pan-fry.
- Chop the sausage into really small pieces in the pan with a stiff spatula so that the small pieces of sausage disperse into the sauce.
- Cook the sausage long enough so that it is not only cooked through, but it starts to get caramelized and crispy. This makes for a great addition to the sauce, and takes the dish up a notch.
- Pasta: I recommend rigatoni or penne to soak up the sauce. Cook the pasta to al dente, keeping in mind that not all packages give the correct timing for cooking to al dente. For a really excellent dish, buy high quality slow dried, bronze cut pasta imported from Italy.
- Chunky Sauce: If you like a chunky sauce you can skip puréeing and straining the sauce and add the sausage directly to the sauce in the pan.
Nutrition
Calories: 1138kcal | Carbohydrates: 101g | Protein: 43g | Fat: 62g | Saturated Fat: 21g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 30g | Cholesterol: 129mg | Sodium: 1579mg | Potassium: 1443mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 1717IU | Vitamin C: 82mg | Calcium: 101mg | Iron: 6mg
