Vesuvio Pasta with Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sausage Sauce

What you'll need

  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 2 cups finely chopped onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped parsley
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 28-oz can whole peeled Italian tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 pound hot Italian sausage
  • 3/4 pound Vesuvio pasta, or some other gnarly shape
  • 1 fistful Parmigiano-Reggiano

A rich, flavorful, meaty pasta dish balanced by the cleanness of parsley and white wine

  1. Mise en place: Prepare the onion, garlic, parsley, and wine separately and set aside. Chop up the tomatoes and combine with the chili flakes and a generous pinch of salt. You'll need a big skillet for the sauce, another for the sausage, and a stock pot for the pasta.
  2. Sauté the onions on medium until pale gold. (You're just sweating them here, not browning them.) Then add the garlic and cook for a few seconds.
  3. Add the parsley, then the wine. Let it simmer until the alcohol dissipates.
  4. Prepare the other skillet for browning the sausage.
  5. Add the tomatoes, red pepper and salt, and simmer for about 20 minutes, until you can begin to draw a wooden spoon through it and see the clear fat trailing the spoon.
  6. Once the tomatoes are going, get your pasta water going, and then brown the sausage until it's cooked through.
  7. Salt the pasta water, drop the pasta, cook until al dente.
  8. Drain the pasta and combine it with the sauce and the sausage, some extra parsley, and cheese on the side.

Submitted by: Joel

Thanks to: Alexandra Cooks, via Marcella