Good grief, maybe someday I’ll share an actual recipe again. This is another I use about a pound of this, a smidge of that. I’m blaming my dad. He “taught” me this recipe after we ate at Coco Pazzo in Chicago and had a similar dish. This is what we came up with and it’s pretty close.
In my house it is named after my dad, who my boys call DD.
DD’s Pasta
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- 1 pound pasta – I use rigatoni
- 1 pound (about) of Italian sausage – you can use turkey Italian sausage. Remove the sausage from the casings so you can crumble it.
- 1 jar pasta sauce or make your own – you likely won’t need the whole jar
- 1 cup of frozen peas
- cream, butter, parmasean
Boil the water.
Brown the sausage in a skillet. (not in the casings)
When the water boils, add salt (I use kosher, maybe 2 Tablespoons) and then the pasta. Cook according to directions.
When your pasta has about five minutes left, add the frozen peas to the boiling water.
In the skillet with the browned sausage, add the pasta sauce. I usually start with about a cup.
After the pasta and peas are done, drain and combine with the sausage and sauce. You can either do this in the skillet or the pasta pot. At this point you want to add either some cream – maybe 1/2 cup or less OR about four tablespoons of butter. My dad uses cream. I’ve switched to butter after watching a cooking show with Giada De Laurentiis, but either is delicious.
If you need more liquid, add more sauce. It should be a creamy red color. Add more of the sauce, butter, or cream until you get the consistency you want.
Cook on low for a few minutes to get the flavors altogether.
Top with parmesan.
If you want to really go for the carbs, these rolls are to die for. Click HERE.
