This is a spicy, delicious, addictive, ridiculously easy, insanely meaty pasta. So unfussy, you can do this even in the midst of all the holiday craziness, and have a nice, quick, home-cooked meal.
What you need to serve 6
1 lb. penne pasta
1 medium-to-large white onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp coarse salt, plus more to taste
1 Tbs dried oregano
1 Tbs dried basil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 lb. bulk Italian sausage, mild
1 lb. bulk Italian sausage, hot
1 can (28-oz.) tomato purée
Coarsely-ground fresh black pepper, to taste
Cayenne, to taste (optional)
2 Tbs cold butter, cut into small cubes
Parmesan cheese, grated or shaved, for serving (optional)
How to do it:
- Put a pot of water on to boil the pasta. Meanwhile, chop the onion. Set aside. Smash and peel the garlic; add it to the onion. Set aside.
(Once the pasta is drained – which should happen right around the same time that the sauce is nearly complete – ladle a small amount of pasta sauce into it, to prevent it from sticking together.)
- Preheat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet for 2 minutes over a medium flame. Add the oil, and wait a few seconds for it to shimmer. Add the onion, garlic, salt, and spices; cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the sausage and scramble it until no pink remains, about 10 minutes.
- Add the tomato purée. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Off heat. Taste for salt. Add pepper (and cayenne). Dot with butter; stir briefly.
- The sauce is ready to go at this point, but if you have the time, give it a 5-minute rest, uncovered. It will stay quite warm if you’ve used a cast-iron pan. In this wait time, the flavors will meld further and the texture will improve slightly. Either serve the sauce over the pasta, or toss it all together. (Garnish with Parmesan.)
Notes:
Three-to-four cloves is nice, but if you really love garlic, add as much as you like. I don’t mind having smashed garlic visible in the sauce, but if you don’t like that, mince the garlic instead of smashing it.
I don’t precisely measure the herbs. I dump them into my palm, and eyeball it. This causes each batch to turn out slightly differently, but I like that.
I like the meat to be chunky and seared, so I don’t really “scramble” it. I push the onions to the sides of the pan and lay the pork into the pan so that it’s as much as possible in contact with the pan instead of lying atop the onion. Then I leave it there for a solid five minutes. After that, I flip it and start chunking through it with a wooden spatula, breaking it into small, bite-sized pieces.
Cayenne is fantastic with pork. Go bold!
You might add a can (6 oz.) of tomato paste if you have it on-hand, or think to pick one up. The sauce doesn’t need it, but it does add depth of both flavor and texture.
Some people add a dose of brown sugar to a sauce like this. I don’t. Yes, it is kind of good … but sugar has become so ubiquitous. The last thing I feel I need is more of it, especially in places where it doesn’t really need to be. For that reason, I also would avoid “sweet” sausage in this dish.
This recipe produces more sauce than you need for a pound of pasta. You could dress a pound-and-a-half or maybe even two. I don’t mind that, though. I could eat this sauce all by itself, without any pasta (but I don’t – at least I have that shred of decency).
A lot of my recipes include a direction to, “Preheat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet…” That’s because that is my every-day, go-to skillet. Other types of pans may not require preheating. Obviously, there are few recipes that must be cooked in cast-iron, and this ridiculously easy, insanely meaty pasta is no exception. I would use more generalized, universal directions in the recipes that I post, were it not for two things: first, if I expect someone to follow what I’ve done and get the same results that I got, they need to know exactly what I did. Second, I want to continue to give shout-outs to my trusty cast-iron skillet. It’s a fantastic pan. You could use it as a make-shift sledge hammer, and then turn right around and fry a perfect over-easy egg in it.
The backstory:
This pasta doesn’t need to be hovered over or wrangled with. The prep is insignificant. While it’s cooking, you just have to check on it periodically. I can juggle the making of this dish easily with the rest of my I-just-got-home-from-work routine. I have a couple of aprons that I almost never wear, but if I started this sauce with my tie still on, that’s one of the times I’d get one out. No worries: they’re classy, manly-man aprons, and look great over a dress shirt and slacks.
Is pasta a comfort food? Probably. If so, this dish seems even comfort-foodier. That’s the one drawback: I want to eat all of it, right from the stove. I mean, you gotta taste the sauce, right? And then you need to taste a bite with the pasta. Then, who knows, just to be sure, you should have another taste. Then it’s like, fuck it, I’m just going to eat this right out of the pan.
Sometimes I splash a bit of wine into a homemade pasta sauce. This one doesn’t need it, but who knows, maybe this time it will? I’d better open that bottle and taste the wine, just to make sure I know what I’m doing should I decide to add it to the sauce. The glass I wind up drinking as I cook doesn’t count; the one I have with dinner will be my first, and I swear by it.
The perfect backdrop to cooking this ridiculously easy, insanely meaty pasta is Charlie Parker with Strings: The Master Takes (Polygram), and that’s just a fact.
Ridiculously Easy, Insanely Meaty Pasta
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.
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Insanely meaty!!! Yes yes yes!!! Have a very merry Christmas Jeff!
You too, Mimi!
That is an insanely meaty pasta! Also, yes I think it is worth trying with some wine. You never know…
Matt – Total Feasts recently posted…Quebecois Tourtiere hand pies {French Canadian meat pies}
Thanks, Matt!
Delicious !! Make feel hungry !!
Merry Christmas Jeff!!
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Merry Christmas, Gloria!
Well, we definitely need a pic of you in your apron! 😀 You had me at “insanely,” with this one. You know a dish is going to be amazing with “insane” is in the title. Wishing you a very happy holiday week! 🙂 ~Valentina
Thanks! And Happy Holidays to you, too!
Is pasta comfort food? Absolutely! And a good Italian sausage in a tomato sauce is my favorite. What a great recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Thank you!
Nice and simple dish!
Merry Christmas to you and your family Jeff
Thanks so much, Raymond! Merry Christmas to you, yoo!
Sounds GREAT with chunky meaty sauce, Jeff. Wish you and yours a safe and merry Christmas, Jeff!
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Thanks, Angie! And Merry Christmas to you, too!
I will go bold! This seems like the dish to do it… Happy Holidays to you. GREG
Happy Holidays to you, too!
I love the use of both kinds of sausage, Jeff. Nothing wrong with it really made the pasta, is there? And, as you say, it’s nice to have something easy to pull off during the holidays… I hope you have a wonderful holiday season… It’s been great to connect this year.
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I feel the same way, and wish you a happy holiday season, too!
Looks good! I’ll dump a handful of chili flakes in mine, and dump the Charlie Parker completely (sorry). But yeah, good stuff. Merry Christmas to ya!
Dangerspouse recently posted…The Lasagna With Meat Sauce Board of Standards Wins Christmas!
Charlie won’t mind; he’s dead. And I say, go to town on the flakes!
This looks so incredibly delicious – I love that you used two differnt kinds of Italian sausage in your recipe for a perfect taste balance – and all those lovely herbs add another wonderful layer of flavor to your dish. Perfect for all of us pasta lovers!
Happy Holidays!
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Thank you!
Hi Jeff the Chef – I love that you used the word “unfussy” in your description. That’s music to my ears after this holiday season. This recipe sounds fantastic and a nice departure from all the “fussy” meals lately. Thanks for sharing.
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You’re absolutely welcome, and unfussy was definitely what I was going for! This is such an incredibly busy time, I figured we could all use a quick meal.
This sounds great! I love meaty pasta.
Cakelaw recently posted…Middle Brighton Baths, Middle Brighton
Thanks!
Sounds like a nice and easy filling meal during all the holiday rush! My husband loves a good meaty sauce.
Thanks, Judee. It definitely is easy and filling.
Such a simple sauce, yet full of flavor! Perfect comfort food to usher in the new year!! I will finish my next batch off with butter, too 🙂
Thanks, Liz!
Yup, I want to eat this straight outta the pan. I’m liking the sweet and hot combo in the Italian sausage, too. Funny story: we made a very similar dish here for Christmas Day. We didn’t make it back to visit Laura’s family this holiday season, so she wanted her traditional Christmas Day meal…spaghetti and meatballs and Italian sausage links. It was pretty damn epic. I didn’t eat it straight from the pan, but I totally could have. Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas, Jeff!
David @ Spiced recently posted…Tomato Florentine Soup
I love that Christmas tradition! I think spaghetti and meatballs is a perfect, festive dish. And I happen to love sausage in my spaghetti, as you can obviously tell. Merry Christmas to you, too, David!
Pasta is such great comfort food. This dish with the hearty sauce looks divine!
Thank you, Kathy!
And it looks insanely delicious! I’ll be saving this one 🙂
Thanks so much, Susan!
DELICIOUS! I absolutely love your herb and spice combo here. Can’t beat oregano, basil, and thyme! And the addition of cayenne is just genius. I can totally see how it’d be hard to not start digging in before getting this pasta to the table!
Thank you so much, Shannon!
This looks incredibly hearty and delicious. Absolutely love a generous amount of garlic; and wish you, Jeff, a blessed 2020.
Thank you, and Happy New Year to you!
Delicious pasta recipe, we will definitely prepare pasta at my home, Thank you for sharing this beautiful information.
I hope you enjoy it.
That’s exactly the kind of dish we’d love to enjoy on a Sunday lunch, with a glass of good red wine. It’s an easy to follow recipe, with simple ingredients and it makes a delicious comfort food. Kudos Jeff!!!
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