Pappardelle with Sausage and Peppers
This simple Pappardelle with Sausage and Peppers comes together quickly with lots of flavour. An ideal fall or winter pasta dish, serve it with a side salad made with this Caesar dressing and your favourite crusty bread!
Ingredients
- 1 lb fennel Italian sausage, casings removed
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 2 red bell peppers stems, cores and seeds removed and cut into 1-inch squares
- Kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste plus 3 tablespoons water or 6 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 lb pappardelle
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ⅓ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano plus more for serving
Instructions
- In a soup pot or Dutch oven, add 1 tablespoon oil and sausage and cook over medium heat until lightly browned, breaking it into small chunks with a wooden spoon, 5-6 minutes. Remove sausage from pot and set aside.
- Add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to pot and sauté the onion until golden, about 5 minutes.
- Add the peppers, season with salt, and continue cooking until softened, 7 to 8 minutes.
- While the peppers are cooking, fill a pot for the pasta with water, place over high heat and bring to a boil.
- To the sauce, add tomato paste and water (or tomato sauce if using), chopped rosemary and oregano. Stir in cooked sausage and turn heat down to low.
- When the sauce is ready and the water is boiling, cook pasta until al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta water then drain well and toss with the sauce along with the butter and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Stir in ½ cup pasta water. Add a little more pasta water if needed just until the sauce is glossy, then plate and serve topped with more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Notes
Servings: This recipe is made with 1 lb (454 grams) pasta and makes about 4 servings allowing for 4 oz or 115 grams protein per person. I’ll often stretch it to 6 when accompanied by salad and bread or if portioning it out for weeknight meals.
Reserve pasta water! It helps emulsify the sauce into a silky texture.
Don’t overcook the pasta: Whether you use fresh or dry pasta, cook according to package instructions then drain and add it directly to the sauce. Overcooked pasta will lose its shape and begin to stick together. If in doubt, cook for 1 minute less than instructed to retain a slight chewiness once it’s stirred into the sauce.
Make it dairy free: Substitute extra-virgin olive oil, DF butter or plant-based Parmesan in place of the dairy in this recipe.
Storage: Pasta will keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months.