Rated one of Food & Wine's 40 best recipes in 2018. This dish takes just about 20 minutes to put together. Serves 4
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound penne, rigatoni or medium shells
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ pounds hot Italian sausage (I used mild)
3/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp. grainy mustard
pinch of crushed red pepper
1 cup thinly sliced basil
DIRECTIONS:
Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente; drain.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the sausage meat and brown over moderately high heat, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and simmer, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom, until reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
Add the cream, mustard and crushed red pepper and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the pasta and basil and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
Notes:
Since I don't like really spicy foods, I chose the mild italian sausage, and for me it had the right amount of spice.
I couldn't find fresh basil when I was shopping for the other ingredients (and I wasn't going to run around the city to find it), so I used freeze dried and it tasted great.
We ate two servings and I froze the other two. I found when we re-heated the frozen servings, the spices blended even further and it had even more "kick" to it the second time around.
Enjoy!