Pasta Sauce with Italian Sausage (Recipe)

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posted on

January 6, 2021

Let the good ingredients do the cooking tonight!

No-Fuss * Delicious * Quick * Hearty Pasta Sauce

I hesitate a little to step into the realm of pasta sauce. Evocative names like Ragu, Bolognese, Alfredo, and Primavera come to mind, as well as perfect wine pairings, long simmering, and influential regional traditions and family secret recipes. I love all the saucy nuances, and I don't deny that the all-day Ragu in Martin's lasagna recipe may be one of the reasons I married him.

But this is a different food group entirely. This is a weeknight ranch kitchen recipe, ultra stripped-down for maximum ease. I'm sure it breaks all sorts of rules. But most importantly, it's one of those fortuitous occasions when just a few good ingredients result in a really quick meal that tastes like you worked harder than you did! It scales easily so in days of yore (and hopefully the near future) it was also my go-to recipe for feeding unexpected company.

Pasta Sauce with Italian Sausage

1 lb Italian Links or Italian Sausage or Spicy Italian Links or Spicy Italian Sausage

1 onion, chopped

30 oz can crushed tomatoes

1/4 tsp basil

salt, pepper & honey to taste

Slice sausage links or crumble loose sausage and brown it in a pan. Add the chopped onion and cook until tender. Stir in the crushed tomatoes and basil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired. The flavor of the tomatoes plays an important role in this dish - if it tastes a little sharp, add a dollop of honey or a sprinkle of sugar. Simmer a few minutes more and serve over your favorite pasta or vegetables.

Kitchen tip: My grandma always says "tomatoes call for sugar", and usually I find that she's right! Often I start the sauce with some sweet, local carrots to fulfill at least part of the sugar requirement, but in this case we're going for maximum speed and a spoonful of honey or other sweetener mellows the sharpness of the tomatoes quickly.

This sauce makes excellent leftovers for lunch and also freezes really well, so make a double batch to save even more time.

🎥 Meet the chickens behind your favorite eggs. [video]

I’m taking you behind the scenes today with a video🎥 to help answer the question: “Why are your eggs so good?” That’s a question we get all the time, and I’m not sure how to answer it. Not because I don’t know the answer, but because I don’t know where to begin. Because the actual boots-on-the-ground logistics of what we do is super complex. And every piece of the puzzle contributes to the health of the hens, and thereby the flavor and nutrition of the eggs. 🐓 moving hundreds of chickens outdoors on fresh pasture 🦅 while keeping them from getting eaten by everything else 🌾mixing our own feed so it’s always super fresh 🐤working with a nutritionist so each hen gets exactly what she needs at each stage of her life 🥚keeping eggs in stock year-round ⛈️ proper housing in the winter to protect the soil and the hens 📜 the list goes on It’s no surprise when someone asks me a question like that, I immediately start composing in my head a 5-paragraph essay 📝 - complete with introductory sentences, supporting evidence, and a compelling conclusion. All the time knowing it’s going to come out how Charlie Brown heard his teacher – “wah wah wah”. 😄 Luckily, I mentioned my problem to Farmer Martin and he boiled it down to TWO WORDS. Fresh. Feed. Ha! Why couldn’t I think of that? 🤷‍♀️ At this moment of the year, Fresh Feed means the most gorgeous grass on God’s green earth. 🎥 So, if a picture’s worth a thousand words, I decided to spare you the 5-paragraph essay and bring you a 48 second video instead. Farmhand Grace was happy to hop on the tractor with her farmer-daddy to make the trek out to the pasture and help show you around. I’m not making promises about the video quality. 🎬 I didn’t plan out what I should say (I would have managed to turn it into an unendurable 5-paragraph essay). And fair warning if you get motion sickness, there’s a moment at the beginning where I spun the camera a little fast because I had a premonition of approaching danger… I’m not going to spoil it by telling you what it was - suffice it to say my instincts were correct. And while I apologize for the poor filming and any queasy stomachs, it’s pretty much real farm life in action. 👩‍🌾🥰 You’ll meet the hens, some of the guardians who keep them safe, and catch a glimpse of your farmers, too.Click on the image at the top of this post to watch the video. And don’t forget to grab some eggs for this week. With its bounty, Spring’s a great time to add extra eggs to your weekly protein routine. I’ve got several family-favorite recipes linked on the egg page to bring you inspiration for breakfast or dinner, like Cheesy Egg Bites, Dutch Babies and Potato Salad. Click here to get the best eggs.