The key to my heart: pasta with spicy tomato sauce. Throw in some sausage and I might just consider it a marriage proposal.
Give me a better idea than eating big bowl of pasta after a long, cold day. trick question, there is none! Let's be honest, pasta is always a good idea, cold day, hot day, I'll eat pasta year round! All pasta is good pasta, but restaurant quality pasta that you can whip up in an hour. Now that is great pasta! This Spicy Sausage Pasta just might be the best dish you make all winter. It's warm, spicy, and so so easy to make. Guarantee you'll never want to go back to buying store bought sauce again!
The easiest pasta you'll make all season!
Don't be alarmed when I say this takes an hour. 95% of that time is spent roasting tomatoes which is a completely hands off process. Just toss a touch of olive oil, tomatoes, one head of garlic, a few dried chilies, and a cup of wine into a heavy bottomed roasting pan. Then pop it in the oven, and walk away. No babysitting necessary!
Roast for 55 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit and you'll be left with the most delicious smelling sauce. All that's left is to scoop out the dried chilies (feel free to leave them in, but I don't recommend that for the faint of heart. The small chilies pack a spicy punch!) and then blend with some butter.
You can make this with any type of pasta, but I'd recommend using a bigger, tubular shape like rigatoni to really hold all of the sauce.
When making the sausage, I recommend taking it out of its casing and mincing it really small. This will help it stir in nicely with the sauce. That is completely optional though! To save some time, you can just cut the sausage up into bite size pieces and mix it in like that.
Make it meatless and omit the spicy sausage
The spicy sausage is a great addition, but the roasted tomato, wine-heavy sauce is phenomenal without it as well. If you're making this for a vegetarian, you can still give them an awesome meal by reserving some of the sauce before you cook the meat, and just giving them that!
Interested in more pasta recipes? Check out some of my favorites below!
Creamy Goat Cheese & Mint Pesto Pasta
Spicy Sausage and Roasted Tomato Sauce Pasta
Course: Entrées, Pasta DishesDifficulty: Easy6
servings15
minutes1
hour15
minutesIngredients
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Lb Small Heirloom Tomatoes (Sub cherrytomatoes)
4 Kumato Tomatoes (Sub any medium sized tomato)
1 Head Garlic
1 Cup Dry Red Wine
4 Dried Chilies (optional)
Basil Leaves (optional)
2 Tbs Butter, Softened
1 Package Rigatoni Pasta
3 Hot Link Sausages (I like Evergood brand from Costco)
3 Tbs Grated Parmesan (optional)
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.;Add olive oil to the bottom of a heavy bottomed roasting pan. Cut the tomatoes lengthwise then add them cut side down into the pan. Slice the top off of the head of garlic and add the bottom (root side) into the pan, cut side down as well. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper, then pour in the wine and place in the oven to roast for 55 minutes.
- When the sauce has 10 minutes left of roasting, begin cooking the pasta according the package's instructions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water then drain the pasta and set aside.
- Remove the sausage from its casing (optional) and mince into small pieces. Cook in a large frying pan (large enough to hold all of the pasta) over medium heat until cooked through. Roughly 5 minutes depending on how small you chopped it. The sausage will release a lot of oil as it cooks. You can pour it out to keep this meal healthier, but I recommend keeping it as it has a nice spice that will help flavor the pasta.
- Once the sauce is done roasting, scoop out the chilies and head of garlic. Squeeze the head of garlic until all the softened cloves come out into the sauce. Discard the chilies. Add everything plus the softened butter to a blender and blend until smooth. You can add in fresh basil here if you would like.
- Add the noodles to the pan with the sausage and pour in the sauce. Cook over medium heat until it is all incorporated, adding in the reserved pasta water as needed. Top it off with parmesan then season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve and Enjoy!
This was amazing and easy. Thank you for the recipe.