I love pasta cream sauces, but I’ve never really tried a tomato-cream sauce before this one tonight. It is a new recipe from my mom who sometimes just walks into the kitchen and looks at the available ingredients and creates a meal!
If you don’t like spicy hot sausage, you can substitute regular sausage, though I think the spicy sausage adds extra kick and flavor!
Remember I sang for Big Band Night last Saturday? It was a marvelous evening with a stunning moon in the sky. Actually, I first discovered “It’s Only a Paper Moon” when I sang it a few years ago at Big Band Night. Check out this stellar version sung by Ella Fitzgerald!
Ingredients
- ½ pound radiatore pasta
- ½ pound hot Italian sausage
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ½ cup chopped red pepper
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup half-and-half cream
- ½ cup sliced black olives (optional garnish)
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Cook radiatore pasta for 9 minutes, just under the normal cooking time. Drain. Set aside.
- Cook sausage on medium heat until browned. Drain off excess grease.
- Sprinkle flour over the sausage. Stir to coat the sausage.
- Reduce the heat to low.
- Continue to cook sausage. Add tomatoes. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- In a separate frying pan over medium heat, put olive oil.
- Add chopped red pepper and diced onion. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add par-cooked red pepper and onion to sausage and tomato mixture.
- Remove from heat.
- Add radiatore pasta to sausage mixture. Stir.
- In the microwave, heat half-and-half cream for 20-30 seconds.
- Add half-and-half cream to pasta and sausage mixture. Stir gently.
- Serve with sliced black olives or grated Parmesan cheese as garnish.