Sweet Hot Sausage Pasta Sauce
This is one of my favorite pasta dishes. The sauce is simple, fast to assemble and easily doubled or tripled for freezer storage and reheated for future week night meals.
I love this sauce smothering a large plate of fresh pasta. There is an instructional video for making fresh pasta following the sauce recipe. However, feel free to choose the pasta of your liking.
SWEET HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGE PASTA SAUCE:
Active time: 15 minutes
Inactive time: 60 minutes
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 pound ground pork
1 tablespoon Penzeys Italian Sausage Seasoning*
2 shallots, sliced
1 teaspoon of red pepper flake
1/2 cup of white wine
1-28 ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 cup of fresh basil
*If you don't have the Penzey's Italian Sausage Spice, replace the ground pork and seasoning with a pound of sweet Italian sausages and remove the casings.
Lightly mix the pork, the sausage seasoning and red pepper flakes together, set aside.
Pour the tomatoes into a bowl. Use an immersion blender to crush up the tomatoes and set aside.
Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Add a tablespoon of butter and olive oil to the pan. Once the butter has melted, add the pork and shallots. Use a spatula to break up the pork into small chunks.
Once the pork has almost finished browning, add the white wine. You can choose to drain the fat before you add the wine. However, it will depend on how fatty your pork tends to be. If there is a little fat in the pan, I let it ride. Cook for several minutes until the wine has reduced some. Stir in the oregano and brown sugar and cook for another minute.
Pour in the tomatoes, bring to a boil and let the sauce simmer for about 45-60 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
Add fresh basil and serve over pasta.
PREPARATION TIP: This is a freezer friendly sauce. Store in an airtight container and freeze for up to a month. For best results, thaw the sauce overnight in the refrigerator. Bring the sauce to a boil and serve over your favorite pasta.
We love fresh pasta. Here is an instructional video I was talking about earlier in the post. The video also includes a recipe for Shrimp Scampi.
If you want to really impress your guests or just like crusty bread, serve this pasta dish with homemade fresh baked bread. This bread is easy to make but does include a lot of waiting around time. However, on a day you have time to spare, make this bread, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and freeze it. Your guests will never know it wasn't baked that day.
