Pasta with Sausage and Tomatoes (Dry White Wine and Cherry Tomatoes)

italiansausagespaghetti Sausage cherry tomato pasta is a simple pasta dish that’s loaded with flavour from the sweet Italian sausage, burst cherry tomatoes, Pecorino Romano cheese and fresh hand-torn basil leaves. This pasta is easy to make and can be ready in about 35 minutes.

Pasta:
2 Tbsp. sea salt
1 lb penne rigatoni, ziti, or other short tubular pasta

Sauce:
1½ lbs ground Italian sausage
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
½ tsp. crushed hot red pepper flakes
½ cup dry white wine
3 dry pts (36 oz) cherry tomatoes
½ cup Pecorino Romano, freshly grated
1 cup reserved pasta water

To Serve:
¼ cup basil leaves, hand torn, packed
Pecorino Romano, freshly grated

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

Heat a large pan to medium and wait 2 minutes. Add the sausage to the pan and cook until browned while breaking up with a wooden spoon (~ 10 minutes). Remove the cooked sausage and set aside in a plate.

Turn the heat to medium-low and add the olive oil and onion. Cook the onion until soft (~ 3-5 minutes) then add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes more or until lightly golden. Add the chili flakes and cook for 30 seconds more.

Next, turn the heat to medium-high and add the wine and cook for 2-3 minutes or until reduced by about half. Meanwhile, cook your pasta until 1 minute less than al dente.

While the pasta is cooking add the tomatoes to the pan and bring the sauce to a boil then lower to a simmer. After the tomatoes break down a bit (~ 5 minutes) add the sausage back to the pan and continue cooking at a simmer.

Add the pasta to the sauce and stir well and/or toss to coat. Cook for 30-60 seconds more then remove the pan from the heat. Add in the Pecorino Romano and if the sauce is too dry add some of the pasta water a bit at a time to loosen it up.

Taste test and adjust salt levels if required. Add in the basil and serve with more Pecorino Romano cheese on the side.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Cook's Notes:

Penne was used, but any tubular-shaped pasta works well also.
Calabrian chili paste can be subbed for the hot red pepper flakes.
Leftovers can be saved for up to 3 days and can be reheated in a moderate oven.
Sausage: Grocery stores will often sell “bulk” sausage, which means the sausage meat without the casing. If you have trouble finding this, you can buy sausage links, make a slit down the middle and remove the meat from the casing. We used sweet Italian sausage for this sausage cherry tomato pasta but you could also use spicy sausage, turkey, or chicken sausage.
Pasta: We used penne for this dish but any tubular-shaped pasta would work, such as rigatoni, ziti, or even fusilli.
Wine: We do use white wine in this recipe and recommend using a dry white wine, like a sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio. If you don’t want to use alcohol, you can skip the wine and just use a little extra pasta water.
Save your pasta water. As with most of our pasta dishes, we recommend always reserving your pasta water. Pasta water is often used to help reconstitute pasta that’s dried out a little. This often happens with cream sauces, but can happen to any pasta especially when cheese is added. Pasta water returns the pasta and sauce to a glossy consistency. It also helps emulsify sauces.
Spice It Up: If you like extra spice, by all means, add some Calabrian chili paste to this pasta. We usually serve it on the side and add a little at a time.