This version of a Creamy Sausage Ragu Pasta is a fast, slow food dish. It’s simple with few ingredients and can be made in under an hour. Ragu (Bolognese) is a meat based tomato sauce that is typically slow cooked about 3 hours. I have many of those long bolognese recipes here.

Made with passata (strained tomato sauce) heavy cream, white wine, the sauce is delicate and yet flavorful because of the sausage. This was something made for lunch on the fly and you will love it. It’s also really good left over.

We just returned from Italy, where we ate pasta almost every day. Actually, the boys who were with us (now 17) did eat pasta at least once and sometimes twice a day. These are the twins you’ve heard about here since the inception of this blog, born in 2007 and the blog born in early 2009. They’ve been along for the ride and in the kitchen for so many of the meals

Since we returned, I’ve been experimenting with new pasta dishes, because the boys eat lunch here about 4 times a week. .

You’ve probably heard that when people go to Italy, they can eat and pasta and bread without issue and weight gain. It’s true, but of course, take in mind, there is a lot of walking which probably helps the metabolism process the carbs. Also, there’s not a lot of junk food, snacks or sweets outside of gelato.

Even though most of my recipes are low-carb, you have families that don’t eat that way and sometimes you want to have some pasta too. You can make this sauce and serve it with spaghetti squash.

This dish, featuring a creamy sausage ragu takes less than an hour to make and it’s super easy, and satisfying.

Ingredients

Hot Italian Sausage
Carrot, Onion, Celery
Jarred Passata (or tomato puree)
Heavy Cream
Pecorino Cheese
White Wine
Pasta AND Pasta Broth

Note on Pasta Broth: It’s a secret weapon for pasta dishes. It contains starch and will help thicken the sauce. It’s very important in this dish.

Choosing the Pasta

I used a small rigatoni, which has ridges and heft and works well with this sauce. This would work well with penne pasta, orecchiette, or gnocchi.

Process for Creamy Sausage Ragu

Heat oil in pan.
Chop celery, carrot, onion as small as possible, because you won’t have the several hours it takes to cook them down. If you only have onion that’s fine too.
Crumble the sausage into the pot.
When sausage is cooked through, add in white wine and cook for twenty minutes until the alcohol is cooked off. You can skip the wine, if you don’t have any.
Add in just enough passata (puree) to cover the sausage. This is not a heavy tomato sauce. Heat through about ten minutes.
Add any herbs you have like thyme, parsley, basil.
Boil your pasta about 2 minutes before the directions. Save the pasta water. This is the best part.
Add pasta water to the sausage, a ladle at a time. The starch helps to thicken the sauce. I eventually added three ladles. Add in about 1/2 cup heavy cream.
Add a cup of grated pecorino cheese and serve more at the table.
Season as you need with salt and pepper.

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