April 30th - Pasta with Sausage and Tomatoes

April 30th – Pasta with Sausage and Tomatoes

Pasta is still one of the fastest things you can make for dinner. The plan is pretty easy. Sauté some things together in a pan and toss it with cooked pasta. What could be simpler or faster? Pasta sauce doesn’t have to be an all day affair. In fact, most of the “sauces” I make for pasta can be prepared by the time the pasta cooks.

So, I had decided on pasta and the Black Olive and Orange Sausages were calling to me. Even though it’s not really a traditional Italian flavored sausage (it’s actually more Eastern Mediterranean or Greek) I still wanted to use it for pasta. I sautéed some onions in olive oil and let them brown a little and then threw in two sliced up sausages and browned those. The sausage already had a lot of garlic so I didn’t add more, but did add some tomatoes and let all that reduce. Once the pasta was done, I drained it (reserving some pasta water in case I needed to use it in the sauce) and then tossed it in the pan with the sauce. Put it on plates and grate a little cheese on. Simple.

For no special reason, I pulled a pint of my Steam beer, just because I felt like having something hoppy. Ideal match? Maybe not, but it was a great beer and the pasta was fantastic. The hop bitterness helped to cut some of the richness and it had enough malt body to stand up to the robust flavors. Although I like to match food with wine or beer, it doesn’t always have to be rocket science, and sometimes just having what you’re in the mood for will work.