marsala pasta with spicy italian sausage & mushrooms

By kimvess

a comforting marsala pasta, with rigatoni noodles tossed into a creamy marsala pan sauce with spicy italian sausage & mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 1-lb spicy italian sausage (links)
• 8-oz dried pasta (a dried short noodle with ridges, such as rigatoni, is best)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp crushed red chili flakes (though we use closer to 1 tbsp - we like it spicy!)
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 10-oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup dry marsala
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the sausage links on a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet and bake off the sausages for 10 minutes.
After having allowed sausages time to rest, thinly slice on a bias & set aside.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil & cook pasta according to package directions, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Strain & set aside.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat.
Saute diced onion with salt & chili flake until soft & translucent, about 3 minutes.
Add garlic & cook for about 30 seconds, stirring frequently, until fragrant.
Add sausage into the pan, arranging the slices in such a way that they cover the bottom of the pan, ensuring they brown. Leave the sausage be for about 2 minutes before flipping to brown the opposite side.
Add mushrooms on top of sausages & cook for another 2 minutes, until both sides of the sausage are well browned & mushrooms have softened.
Reduce the heat to low & deglaze the pan with the marsala. Cook wine over medium heat until simmering & slightly reduced, & add in heavy cream. Allow sauce to come back up to simmer & slightly reduce.
Toss strained pasta & a generous sprinkle of parmesan into sausage & mushrooms with pan sauce until combined.
Serve in bowls with extra parmesan to garnish.