Recipe Summary Orecchiette With Fresh Tomatoes And Sausage
It's one of those dishes I always come back to for more. Best thing is, there is room to tweak it a bit to suit your style. The type of sausage you use will greatly affect the taste of the whole dish. I'm partial to Sicilian-style chicken sausage for this recipe. Garnish each bowl with Parmesan cheese.Ingredients | Ina Garten Recipes Pasta With Cherry Tomatoes
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (4 ounce) package chopped pancetta
1 (12 ounce) package Italian chicken sausage (such as Trader Joe's® Chicken Sicilian Sausage)
⅓ cup red wine
1 (8 ounce) package crimini mushrooms, sliced
20 cherry tomatoes, halved, or more to taste
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
salt to taste
1 (16 ounce) package orecchiette pasta
1 cup chopped baby spinach
Directions
Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion starts to soften, about 2 minutes.
Increase heat to high and add pancetta to the skillet. Cook and stir until crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove casings from the sausages; add sausage meat to skillet. Cook and stir until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour in wine and scrape the bottom of the skillet.
Toss mushrooms into the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, 5 to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, and salt. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick, 1 to 2 hours.
Fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a rolling boil. Stir in orecchiette and return to a boil. Cook pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 7 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water and drain without rinsing the pasta.
Stir spinach into the sauce in the skillet. Cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Toss pasta into the skillet and stir to combine everything. Stir until heated through, adding some reserved pasta water if the sauce seems too thick.
Fresh tomatoes are really key here, but the cherry tomatoes can be pricey. You can use Roma tomatoes, just make sure they are very ripe. Or, worst case, go with canned.
If you can't find orecchiette pasta, you can use small shells instead.
Info | Ina Garten Recipes Pasta With Cherry Tomatoes
prep:
30 mins
cook:
1 hr 31 mins
total:
2 hrs 1 min
Servings:
8
Yield:
8 servings
