Cooking with Syd: Spicy Rigatoni

Nothing is tastier than a bowl of pasta with a glass of red wine if you’re looking for a cozy meal. My favorite type of pasta is a creamy tomato sauce with sausage. This is my go to at Italian eateries so I thought why not make my own? I recently made this recipe from a Pinch of Yum and fell in love. It’s so easy and delicious and a great crowd pleaser. I made a few adjustments to the original receipt by adding in mushrooms and taking out celery.

Here’s the original recipe from Pinch of Yum:

https://pinchofyum.com/date-night-rigatoni

Bon appétit!

Ingredients (6 servings)

1 lb of rigatoni or pasta of your choice (I made this with bow tie)

3 tablespoons of olive oil 

1 large yellow onion

1 lb of Italian Sausage (I used spicy Italian turkey sausage from Whole Foods)

4 cloves of garlic minced 

1 container of white mushrooms chopped 

1 teaspoon of fennel seeds chopped 

1/4 cup of tomato paste 

1 cup of chicken broth or dry white wine1

1/4 cup of heavy cream

2 cups of chopped dinosaur kale 

Salt to taste if needed (I didn’t need to add any)

Red pepper flakes

Pecorino or parmesan cheese for topping

Directions 

1. Heat olive oil in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms and sauté for 10 minutes. Add the sausage and break it up into pieces until cooked all the way through.

2. Cook pasta with salted water. 

3. Turn the heat down and add garlic, ground fennel seeds and tomato paste. Sauté until fragrant and add chicken broth (or white wine). Allow the liquid to cook off a bit and add in the cream. Let it continue to cook to thicken a bit. Mix in kale and add red pepper flakes. 

4. Toss sauce and pasta together and add grated cheese on top

xo, Syd