Cooking with Peachy

“Sausage was invented by the ancient Lucans, in the south of Italy, over 2,000 years ago and then brought to notoriety by the Roman Empire”

Difficulty: ★★
cCooking time: 30 min
Servings: 6
Calories per serving: 470 kcal

Ingredients:

• Twists pasta^(a) – 320 g (11.29 oz.)
• Tomato sauce – 1 l (1.06 qt.)
• Sausage – 400 g (14.11 oz.)
• Onion – 50 g (1.76 oz.)
• Carrot – 50 g (1.76 oz.)
• Celery – 50 g (1.76 oz.)
• Black pepper (ground) – a pinch
• Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tbsp.
• Parsley – 1 tsp.
• Salt for cooking the Pasta – 2 tsp.

Directions:

1. Heat a non-stick pan with and add the olive oil.
2. Dice the carrots, onions and celery and sauté together for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the tomato sauce.
4. Cut the sausage into bite-size pieces and add to the pan, cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally, add some water if the sauce thickens too much.
5. Cook the pasta “al dente”^(b) according to package instructions to finish cooking for the time that the sauce is almost ready.
6. Drain and mix the pasta with the sauce for 1 minute on low heat and serve.
7. Top each serving with finely chopped parsley and freshly ground black pepper.

^(a) Any kind of pasta can be used.

^(b) Cooking pasta to the “al dente” stage without over-cooking requires a certain amount of practice and skill, since it has a relatively brief midway stage between the under-cooked phase, where the dried pasta stays hard in the middle and where fresh pasta tastes “floury”, and the over-cooked phase, where the dish lacks texture and is considered too soft. Using plenty of salt helps meet the “al dente” texture.