Orecchiette with Fresh Tomatoes and Sausage recipe

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Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (4 ounce) package chopped pancetta
1 (12 ounce) package Italian chicken sausage (such as Trader Joe's® Chicken Sicilian Sausage)
⅓ cup red wine
1 (8 ounce) package crimini mushrooms, sliced
20 cherry tomatoes, halved, or more to taste
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
salt to taste
1 (16 ounce) package orecchiette pasta
1 cup chopped baby spinach

Nutrition Info

400 calories
carbohydrate: 47 g
cholesterol: 29.4 mg
fat: 15.7 g
fiber: 3.4 g
protein: 16.3 g
saturatedFat: 5.5 g
servingSize: -
sodium: 498.3 mg
sugar: 1.7 g
transFat: : -
unsaturatedFat: : -

Directions

  1. Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cook and stir until the onion starts to soften, about 2 minutes.

  2. Increase heat to high and add pancetta to the skillet. Cook and stir until crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove casings from the sausages, add sausage meat to skillet. Cook and stir until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour in wine and scrape the bottom of the skillet.

  3. Toss mushrooms into the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, 5 to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, and salt. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick, 1 to 2 hours.

  4. Fill a large pot with salted water and bring to a rolling boil. Stir in orecchiette and return to a boil. Cook pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 7 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water and drain without rinsing the pasta.

  5. Stir spinach into the sauce in the skillet. Cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Toss pasta into the skillet and stir to combine everything. Stir until heated through, adding some reserved pasta water if the sauce seems too thick.

Recipe Yield

8 servings

Recipe Note

It's one of those dishes I always come back to for more. Best thing is, there is room to tweak it a bit to suit your style. The type of sausage you use will greatly affect the taste of the whole dish. I'm partial to Sicilian-style chicken sausage for this recipe. Garnish each bowl with Parmesan cheese.

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