Bucatini with Sausage Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Bucatini Pasta
• 1/2-1 lb Italian Sausage (1)
• 3 Garlic Cloves, sliced thin
• 1 can Whole Peeled Tomatoes, 28 oz.
• 2 tbsp Tomato Paste
• 1/2 tsp Dry Oregano
• 1/2 tsp Dry Parsley
• 1/2 tsp Dry Basil
• Red Pepper Flake

Directions:

1. Heat pan (2) of water to a boil, season with salt.
2. Preheat large pan on med-high, add a bit of oil, and cook sausage.
3. Once sausage is cooked, turn down to medium, add garlic and a pinch of red pepper flake. (3)
4. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until lightly golden brown.
5. Drop pasta into water, stirring to make sure it doesn’t stick.
6. Add tomato paste to sausage mixture and cook for 2 minutes.
7. Add can of tomatoes and crush (4) to desired texture. Salt the dish heavily, and add the dry spices. Cook at a light simmer until pasta is cooked.
8. Boil the pasta until about 1 minute under your desired doneness. Using tongs, transfer pasta directly from pan into sauce. Don’t worry about draining it completely, the starchy pasta water will help thicken the sauce and allow it to cling to the pasta.
9. Mix the pasta together for about a minute, fully coating, and allowing some sauce to get into the middle of the bucatini.
10. Serve, top with high quality olive oil, grated cheese, and basil. Enjoy!

Notes:

1. I used 8 oz. Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage, but this dish can very easily accommodate up to 1 lb of sausage. If you are buying links of sausage, cut into casing and remove the meat. You can use any meat you want here, but the sausage has unique flavoring that I really like and that brings a lot of flavor to a sauce that cooks in under 10 minutes.
2. I use a pan of water. You don’t need a huge pot of water, and with this shape of pasta you’d need a crazy big pot to make it work. Cooking in an even layer in an 11-12 inch pan heats faster and cooks just the same. Just give it a stir every couple minutes to ensure it doesn’t stick (same as if it were in a pot).
3. Red pepper flake to your taste here. If there’s a small amount of rendered fat from the sausage, that’s great for sautéing the sausage. Mine was lean so I added a bit more oil. If yours seems particularly greasy then you can spoon out some excess.
4. If you want a super smooth sauce feel free to blend tomatoes into a puree. You can also just cans of tomato sauce. I snip the tomatoes with scissors first to release the juices, then crush them more with my wood spoon. If you don’t release the juice first, when you crush into it you’re likely to get juice everywhere, they’re like little tomato bombs. Watch out!

© 2020 Mitchell Schwartz