Orecchiette With Italian Sausage & White Wine Sauce
A hearty, savory pasta with a bright white wine sauce, fresh heirloom tomatoes, and basil. Simple to make with just 10 ingredients!
Equipment
- Large oven safe pan (for stovetop and oven) (see recipe notes for alternative if you don't have a pan that can go from stovetop to oven)
Ingredients
- 2⅓ cup orecchiette uncooked
- 1 lb Italian sausage links casings removed and chopped into pieces
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1½ cups halved heirloom cherry tomatoes OK to substitute non-heirloom tomatoes
- 4 cloves garlic grated
- 6 leaves fresh basil chopped into ribbons (chiffonade)
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1¼ cups white wine do not use a sweet wine
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- ⅓ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°, preheat a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat, and bring pasta water to a boil.
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. (Note: If the pasta finishes cooking before you're ready to add it to the pan, drain it and set it aside. Do not rinse.)
- Meanwhile, cook the Italian sausage, stirring occasionally, until brown, about 10 minutes.
- Move the sausage to the side, ideally in an area without much fat. Add 1 tablespoon flour to the pan to make a roux, stirring constantly to mix the flour in to all of the fat from the Italian sausage.
- Add the white white to the pan. Deglaze the pan by scraping all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan while the white wine cooks.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add the garlic, basil, tomatoes, and heavy cream. Stir to combine. The sauce should begin to thicken.
- Stir in the parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
- Drain the orecchiette. Add to the pan and stir until the sauce coats the pasta.
- Transfer to the oven and bake for about 7 minutes.
Notes
If you don't have a large oven-safe pan, just transfer everything to a large baking dish for the baking portion of the recipe.
I used a mix of hot Italian sausage and sweet Italian sausage for this recipe. You could use all hot, all mild, all sweet, or any combination of your choice.