Tagliatelle with Sausage, Basil, and Sun-Dried Tomatos: Quick, Easy, and Awesome

 

The title of this post tells you really all you need to know about making this dish. The ingredients are simple - it's pasta, sausage, sun dried tomato, and basil (oh, and there's some garlic and tomato paste too), and it's easy and awesome.

Mmmm... comfort food.

This used to be one of our go to meals before we started this blog and started making new things all the time. Back in the day when we at a rotating menu of 4 - 5 things, this was one of them. Why? Because of what we just mentioned above: quick, easy, awesome. We actually did a version of this as one of our first posts, but that was an alteration. We were trying to be "innovative." This is the real deal, just like Mario Batali taught us how to make.

Making the Dish
What You'll Need
1/2 lb tagliatelle
4 cloves garlic
4 oz turkey sausage
4 sun-dried tomatoes julienned
4 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup white wine
12 fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp olive oil

Get started by slicing up your garlic into thin slices and julienning your sun dried tomato. You're going to use a lot of garlic - 4 cloves for two people - but that's what makes it taste so good.

In a sauté pan, heat up some olive oil over medium heat and throw your garlic, sun dried tomatoes and cook for a minute or two. Then before the garlic starts to brown, add in your sausage (we used turkey sausage from the local farmer's market - because it's healthier, and actually really tasty), stirring it around quickly and breaking it up as it cooks.

Adding in a few dollops of tomato paste

As the sausage is cooking, add in some tomato paste and start to stir it together, getting the sausage and tomatoes and garlic nicely coated with the stuff. It'll look a little dry, but it's good to cook it like this for a bit because it sort of toasts the tomato paste and gives it a nice earthy flavor. After about a minute or two of this, add in your white wine and stir to combine. Now you'll have more of a sauce.

Sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic mixed with tomato paste and white wine

Cook your pasta in salted water until a minute shy of the package directions. If you're using fresh tagliatelle, this will only need a few minutes. We've made this with both fresh pasta and dried pasta, both work well for this particular concoction.

Decisions decisions.... I'm going to nap on it.

Once the pasta is done, bring it from the boiling water to the sauté pan. Toss in your basil - you can shred up your basil or leave it whole. Leaving it whole is kind of fun. Toss the pasta and the sun dried tomato sauce together until nicely combined. If you need to loosen the sauce up at all, add a little bit of the pasta water at a time until it's right where you like it.

Tossing in the fresh basil

You shouldn't need to add any salt or pepper but give it a taste and if you feel like you want some, put it in. We've never had to though - this dish has been perfect for us every time.

The Result
Serve this with a generous helping of freshly grated pecorino romano cheese and you'll be fully satisfied. It takes so little time to put together with so few ingredients, you'll be amazed at the flavors that result.

Give this one a try and let us know what you think of it!