Sausage and mushroom pasta with pecorino romano – one pot and one skillet. Moderate knife skills required, and I’ll assume we all know that pasta should be cooked until it is al dente and no further, on penalty of death.
1 onion (or one small onion), diced
1 red bell pepper, cored and cut into 1″ strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch crushed red pepper
15-20 cremini mushrooms, quartered
1 pound fresh chicken/turkey sausage, Italian-flavored, casings removed
1 pound dried pasta (farfalle, rigatoni)
¾ cup to 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1. Cook pasta according to package directions in heavily salted water. Drain, reserving one cup of the cooking liquid, returning the pasta to the cooking pot. Ideally, you want the pasta to be done just after the following process is completed.
2. In 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet, sweat onion and red bell pepper until translucent and just thinking about browning, 7-8 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper and cook 30-60 seconds more.
3. Move pan contents to edges. Add mushrooms to center (using more olive oil if required) and cook until they release their liquid and brown slightly, 5-10 minutes.
4. Move mushrooms to pan edges and add sausage, cooking thoroughly. I like to let the meat sit when I first add it so that it browns on one side, then I break it up into small bits and sauté it.
5. Add the skillet’s contents and the cheese to the pasta with ½ cup of the cooking liquid, stirring quickly to form a sauce using the residual heat from the pasta and the liquid. If the resulting sauce is too dry, add some of the remaining cooking liquid just until the pasta is coated and wet, but do not add so much that you get a pool of liquid on the bottom of the pot. Add a few turns of fresh black pepper and serve.
What kind of knives do you use? I just got a 7″ Santoku and a 6″ Utility knife by Shun. They are so much sharper than anything I have ever used before.
1 pound fresh chicken/turkey sausage, Italian-flavored, casings removed
Poultry sausage? Are you kidding me? Gross.
I might try your recipe but I’ll definitely be using Italian pork sausage with fennel seed.
Pork sausage spits out too much fat for this dish – the sauce ends up a bit too greasy. Besides, Whole Foods’ poultry sausages are excellent; I used their basil and parmesan sausages to make this last night.
My knives are all Henckels. Sharp, but more importantly, very comfortable for me.
Keith – I remember a chat from a while ago on the four-letter where you mentioned “The Joy of Cooking” in response to a question about good cookbooks. I need something like this because I have enough recipe-centered books but I really want something that gives me more useful info that I can out to use in many dishes, much like Cooks Illustrated. The thing is, you were specific about which edition to buy and I can’t remember that. Think you can help me out here?
It’s the 1997 edition. The 2006 edition took too much out, and added back some oddities from earlier editions.
The Best New Recipe (2004 edition) is also quite good, although it’s probably lacking more contemporary dishes. The real value of the book is the background/research they give for so many recipes, ingredients, and techniques. (Note: This actually contains several recipes also found in Baking Illustrated, which Keith has referenced in his blog before).
Thanks for the help Keith and Chris. I went ahead and bought both. I had seen it before but didn’t realize “Best New” was a Cooks Illustrated publication, otherwise I would have snatched it up right away.
Keith – Made the recipe last night and really enjoyed it. One thing I would say is that I would err on the side of 1 cup (rather than 3/4 cup of cheese). I was trying to keep it on the lighter side so I went with exactly 3/4 of a cup. While I still enjoyed it, I think it would have been even better with the additional cheese.
Keith, I also made the recipe last night and loved it both for its simplicity and end result. I appreciate the suggestions, so keep them coming. Thanks.
I have a more general question: how are you not extremely overweight? I’ve read your reviews of restaurants in NY, Chicago, and other places (I’ll be sure to check out the Chicago places next time I’m down there), and I’ve concluded you should weigh about 275 pounds. In between reading, eating, and watching/analyzing baseball, you must have some secret way of keeping the lb’s off.
Corey: There’s no easy answer. I have always had a quick metabolism. I also have a weak stomach. I walk everywhere when possible, especially when traveling. I eat a lot of fiber, don’t eat a lot of sugar, and I go for healthy snacks like fruit (fresh or dried) or granola or nuts when possible. And whether true or not, I’ve always felt that the fact that I use a lot of olive oil when cooking has helped.
Thanks. Finally got to trying this (had the right sort of circumstances). Excellent, and we did it with whole wheat pasta. (though we used the Bionaturae brand – which is the best whole what pasta I’ve had by an order of magnitude.