Maccheroni alla Salsiccia e Ricotta (Pasta with Sausage and Ricotta)

I'm always happy to return to Hazan's Classic Pasta Cookbook and this recipe is no exception. We find that his recipes are often heavy on the pasta and light on the sauce, while we prefer the opposite (especially when—as is almost always the case—cooking with store-bought dry pasta rather than fresh, home-made noodles), so we increased the pasta amount slightly but doubled the sauce. The result was a hit with everyone.

As written it calls for maccheroni. We made it with a mix of cavatappi and whole-wheat fusilli; I suspect it would work well with any reasonably compact, high surface area pasta.

We also added some garlic, because who doesn't like garlic? The original recipe doesn't call for any, but...

Maccheroni alla Salsiccia e Ricotta

The Classic Pasta Cookbook p.117

Ingredients

• 1¼ lb dry pasta
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lb mild Italian pork sausage, crumbled
• 3 C tinned whole peeled tomatoes, in their juice, coarsely chopped
• 1 C whole-milk ricotta
• 4 tbsp freshly torn basil
• ½ C freshly grated parmesan

Directions

1. In the background, cook the pasta al dente.
2. Melt the butter in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.
3. Add onion and cook until it softens and turns golden.
4. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
5. Add the sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until it has browned lightly.
6. Stir in the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and continue cooking until the tomatoes have reduced and the butter and sausage fat have begun to separate from the sauce.
7. Reduce heat to medium and stir in the ricotta and basil.
8. Remove from the heat and add the pasta and parmesan. Mix together and serve.