The Quick and Easy Pasta

Pasta Pomodoro is the dish that gets requested frequently at the firehouse.  It's good, relatively fast for a pasta and good for you!  It tastes fresh and will knock your socks off...

Ingredients:

5 spicy Italian sausage links

12 – 15 cloves of garlic minced

½ bottle of dry white wine

¼ cup of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 lb. of rigatoni pasta

1 bunch of fresh basil

10 ripe roma tomatoes diced

1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes

Preparation:

In a large heavy bottomed skillet, saute the sausage links until brown.  In the same pan add olive oil and garlic.  Saute garlic until light brown, add tomatoes, wine, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper.  Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Slice sausages on the bias and add to the sauce with the fresh basil and simmer for 5 minutes more.  While sauce is simmering, boil water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in another pot and add pasta.  Cook until al dente.  Drain pasta and toss with sauce.  Add parmesan cheese to taste.

****If you want to save some dough, you can substitute fresh roma tomatoes for crushed tomatoes in a can.  A 28 ounce can and a 15 ounce can will yield roughly the same amounts.****