Description
This meaty, mushroomy pasta hits just the right spot and is perfect for a quick weeknight dinner or simmered a little longer for a weekend dinner party! This no-fuss pasta recipe is so versatile that it can be eaten with tagliatelle, pappardelle, fettuccini, spaghetti, or even gnocchi. Heck, we’ve even been known to use it as a pizza “sauce” in a pinch and it’s excellent! MealPrep it and freeze in portions for even easier, healthy weeknight meals ready in minutes.
Ingredients
Scale
- 7 ounces Italian salsiccia (or ground pork seasoned w/salt and pepper) (200g)
- 6 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced or diced (175g)
- 7 ounces white or yellow onion, diced (about 1 large onion) (200g)
- 28 ounces canned or jarred tomatoes, finely chopped or crushed (690g)
- 1/4 cup (2 ounces) dry white wine (58g)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (42g)
- 2 medium or large garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 3 freshly dried sage leaves (optional but recommended)
- 3-inch sprig of freshly dried rosemary (or fresh rosemary) (optional but recommended)
- salt to taste
- crushed red peppers or dried whole peppers to taste (optional)
- grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano, for serving
- 12 ounces maccheroni pasta (or other preferred noodles) (320g)
Instructions
- Blister the garlic. Heat a dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot on medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and smashed garlic cloves. Cook for a few minutes until the garlic is slightly blistered and fragrant.
- Cook the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms and herbs, stir to coat with olive oil, season with a little salt, and then don’t touch them again until you notice the mushrooms starting to turn golden brown. Then give them a good stir and continue cooking until most of the mushrooms have a light golden hue and you notice the bottom of the pan starting to turn brown (this is the “fond” and it always equals flavor).
- Cook the onions. Add the onions and a little salt and sweat them until they turn translucent. *You’ll notice the fond disappearing bc of the moisture from the onions, but then after some minutes, a new fond starts appearing and the onions become a much deeper color.
- Cook the pork. Add the sausage and break it up into small pieces with the back of a wooden spoon as it cooks. Season the pork with a little salt if it needs it.
- Deglaze the pan with wine. When the sausage is cooked through and beginning to turn a deeper golden brown, add the wine while scraping the bottom of the pan to get the brown sticky bits incorporated into the meat and mushroom mixture. Cook for 5 minutes on high to help evaporate some of the alcohol.
- Add the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes and 2 tablespoons more of the olive oil (if needed), stir the mixture, season with salt and crushed red pepper (if using), cover with a lid, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes for a quick pasta sauce, or for 1 hour for a longer simmer time.
- Cook the pasta. Add pasta to a lightly salted boiling pot of water and cook according to package directions, stirring occasionally, until about 1 minute before al dente. Add 2 to 3 spoonfuls of pasta cooking water to the saucepot and stir. Strain the pasta and add the noodles to the saucepan and quickly toss with sauce to coat. Turn the heat off and serve with freshly grated cheese and Enjoy!
Notes
- How much pasta do I cook per person? Depending on how hungry we are, I typically cook 3 ounces (or 80g) of pasta per person which is a typical pasta serving in Italy and serve it alongside a salad. I like to make the sauce and then cook only enough pasta for that meal and refrigerate or freeze the rest of the sauce for another meal. Then all I have to do for a quick mid-week dinner is to boil pasta and reheat the sauce.
- How much pasta sauce do I use per person? It’s typical to use anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of sauce per person. Of course, if you serve a bigger 4-ounce portion of pasta per person versus a smaller 3-ounce portion of pasta per person, you’d probably need to account for 1/2 cup of sauce per person. It’s not an exact science of course, but this is a good rough estimate.
- If you can’t find Italian salsiccia (sausage) that’s been seasoned with only black pepper and salt, just use your preferred sausage instead. It won’t yield exactly the same result, but it might even be better! You can always try American breakfast sausage or plain fatty ground pork as a substitute.
- If you move the mushrooms around too much after they’ve been added to the pan, they’ll steam instead of browning properly. Have patience here and allow the mushrooms to have undisturbed contact with the hot pan and olive oil. You’ll be rewarded for it.
- If you can find Mutti brand tomatoes, use them. They are excellent quality tomatoes. If not, look for any other imported Italian San Marzano tomatoes to substitute.
- Get the most out of that can or jar of tomatoes. I almost always add a little water to the jar or can of tomatoes in order to “clean the container”, then I add it to the sauce.
- You may use less olive oil if you’d like. I start off by adding 1 tablespoon to the pot to cook the garlic, then add up to 2 more tablespoons later on if I think the sauce will benefit from it. How much olive oil to use will also depend on how fatty or lean the pork is.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
