Midweek Pasta - Penne With Angus Beef Sausage In Tomato Sauce

It may take some time before one is able to walk into a mainstream supermarket and come out with ingredients for an authentic Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese meal..... and I am not talking about "pseudo Asian" or "Asian inspired " nonsense here. However shopping for an Italian meal is a quite a different story with shelves and shelves of pastas, sauces, oils and deli products for the picking.

This is another one of our favourite pasta dishes with all ingredients gathered from our local supermarket in less than 10 minutes. Normally Italian pork and fennel sausage is used but we thought we might give the Angus beef sausages a try and thankfully they didn't disappoint. 

P.S It is Malaysia's Independence Day today and the 2nd day of the Aidilfitri celebration, happy and safe holidays everyone! Oh don't forget to check out the virtual Merdeka Open House at Babe In The City -KL which is on now.

serve 3 to 4 as a one dish meal
you'll need;
500 g of good quality sausages
4 garlic cloves, chopped
a sprig of rosemary, chopped
a pinch of chili flakes (optional)
1 bottle of passata
1/2 cup of red wine (optional)
500 g of penne
a large handful of picked basil
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for cooking
grated parmesan cheese to serve
good quality olive oil to serve

Remove sausage meat from the casings and break into pieces.

Roughly chop garlic and rosemary and set aside.

Brown sausage meat with a tiny amount of olive oil then push it aside and saute the chopped garlic and rosemary with a little more oil.

Add chili flakes (if using) and cook for a few seconds before adding the passata. Add wine and season well and allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile cook pasta in plenty of salted boiling water until al dente.

Add drained pasta to the sauce and add in the basil and mix well.

Serve pasta with grated parmesan cheese and drizzle with some good quality olive oil.