one-pot pasta with italian sausage

How To Make one-pot pasta with italian sausage

• Step 1
  Take a large 3- to 4-quart sized non-stick and oven-safe sauté pan and heat it over medium heat. Add the olive oil, garlic, and onion to the hot pan and let it sauté for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Step 2
  Add the ground Italian sausage to the pan on top of the mixture and let it cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until the sausage is browned and no more pink is visible. Drain off a couple tablespoons of the rendered fat from the pan.
• Step 3
  Add the fusilli pasta to the pan and mix it in with the sausage mixture. Once all the pasta is coated in the sausage pieces and olive oil/garlic/onions, pour the marinara sauce, beef stock, and water into the pan. Mix everything together and let it cook on medium heat for at least 10 minutes. Stir only as needed (no more than 2 to 3 times).
• Step 4
  While the pasta is cooking along with the sausage and sauce, prepare the ricotta cheese mixture. Mix the ricotta cheese, sea salt, black pepper, chopped parsley, and lemon juice together in a small bowl.
• Step 5
  Stir the pasta/sauce/sausage mixture to check how “done” it might be. Proper pasta should be “al dente” – which means it should be “be soft but still slightly firm at the core of the noodle.” I recommend tasting the pasta rather than the old myth of throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks. But since pasta doneness is a personal preference, when your pasta is ready, turn the heat level to low or off and turn on the oven’s broiler to high.
• Step 6
  Spoon in dollops of the ricotta mixture evenly around the sauté pan as shown in the above photo. Sprinkle the 1 cup of mixed shredded cheeses over the pasta/ricotta dollops. Place the entire pan in the oven under the broiler for a couple minutes to broil the cheese on top until brown and bubbly.
• Step 7
  Serve finished pasta with a garnish of fresh chopped parsley, a sprinkle of extra parmesan cheese, and lots of napkins!
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