Rigatoni with Spicy Italian Sausage Tomato Sauce

It’s been a while since I had a pasta with a simple tomato sauce. This is a pretty simple one as most of the ingredients, other than the hot Italian sausages, came from a well-stocked pantry.

Rigatoni with Spicy Italian Sausage Tomato Sauce – serves 4

4 (1/2 pound) hot Italian sausages
1 28 fl. oz can whole plum tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed through a garlic press
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2-1 tsp dried parsley
1/2-1 tsp dried oregano
1/2-1 tsp dried basil

1 pound rigatoni, cooked according to package directions
4 tsp grated Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Skin the sausages into a large saute pan. Discard the casings and break up the sausage meat with a large wooden spoon. Over medium heat brown the sausage meat, (~5-7 minutes) then add the crushed garlic and cook for another few minutes.

Crush each whole canned tomato by hand into the saute pan. Rinse the can with about half a cup of water and add to the meat in the saute pan.

Sprinkle the salt, black pepper, parsley, oregano and basil over the sausage mixture. Raise the heat to medium-high until the contents come to a boil. Break down the tomatoes a bit more with the wooden spoon.

Cover saute pan with its lid, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring through several times breaking down the tomatoes as necessary and making sure the sauce doesn’t stick.