Tomato Tomatoe

Ina garten’s rigatoni with sausage & fennel

Cooking shows aren’t the same in this day and age. I miss the days when cooking shows were about recipes, techniques and storytelling. Today, many of the cooking shows are centered around competitions or game shows and these types of shows just aren’t my cup of tea.

The barefoot Contessa was one of my favorite shows to watch growing up. I loved escaping into the beautiful, dreamy environment of Ina’s barn where she did all of her cooking and hosted her guests for dinner. I first discovered this Ina Garten recipe years ago (probably over six years ago) while watching her cooking show on TV. I loved seeing the combination of fennel and sausage in a creamy sauce served with rigatoni. I immediately knew that this dish would be an easy weeknight dinner and would be a great comfort meal. In the past, rigatoni was my least favorite pasta shape, however, this recipe made me grow to love rigatoni. I also fell in love with the shape while eating carbonara in Rome. In Rome, carbonara is served with rigatoni or a long pasta shape like spaghetti.

What I love about this pasta is that it uses fennel which is one of my favorite vegetables. Many people don’t love the taste of raw fennel because it has an anise flavor. When you roast or sauté fennel, it becomes sweet and slightly caramelized. It tastes completely different once it’s cooked. I have slightly tweaked Ina’s recipe because I found it used way too much cream. Her recipe calls for almost 2 cups of cream. One cup is plenty in this recipe. I also add one 400g can of crushed tomatoes. I find the tomatoes add more acidity and balances out the heavy cream and fatty sausage. This is a fantastic weeknight dinner to make. It comes together in about 40 minutes. I’ve been making it for many years and it’s a recipe I always come back to because it’s so comforting and easy. In the words of Ina, how bad can that be?

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Ina garten’s rigatoni with sausage & fennel

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 1 box rigatoni
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 small yellow onion, finely minced
• 1 bulb of fennel, diced into small pieces
• 4 mild Italian sausages, removed from the casing
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes
• 1 can (400 g) crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup heavy cream or half & half
• 1/2 cup pasta water
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano + more for serving

Directions

1. Heat a medium sized pot to medium-low heat, add a few drizzles of olive oil. Once the pot is hot, add 1 diced onion and fennel and sauté for 5 minutes until they become translucent. When the vegetables are tender, remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Remove the sausage from their casings and add to the hot pan (add more olive oil if the pan is dry). Break the sausage up into small pieces and cook until golden brown, this should take 10 minutes. Add the garlic, tomato paste and chili flakes. Cook for a few minutes, until the garlic is fragrant, and the tomato paste has caramelized. Add 1 can of crushed tomatoes. Add 1 cup dry white wine and 1 cup cream. Season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low and cook for 20-30 minutes until the sauce has thickened, stirring every few minutes.
3. When the sauce is almost finished cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for two minutes less than what the package says. When the pasta is almost done cooking, remove 1 cup of pasta water.
4. Add the al dente pasta to the sauce along with 1/2 cup pasta water. The sauce should be thick and creamy. Add more pasta water if needed. Off the heat, stir in 1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.