Sausage pasta

I love cooking this dish for friends and family as it's so easy, so forgiving, so comforting and probably the first thing I made as a new foodie that actually impressed my sons!  It's a real family favourite and Alex and Joe seem to make it themselves a fair bit.  In fact I vaguely remember Joe doing it for a Food Tech exam years ago but may be wrong.

There's no set recipe with regards what sort of sausage to use; it's all about availabilty and how much you want to spend.  Over the years I've used bulk standard smoked sausage, kabanos, chorizo, franks, bratwurst and a host of others.  I usually use smoked sausage (good old Matteson's) and just one other in each dish, though, as I love the smoky flavour, don't want to overcomplicate flavours and a little of each certainly goes a long way.  Plus the smoked sausage plumps up when cooked in the sauce and is a real burst of flavour when you find a slice!

The version I've done this evening works out at about 70p per person!  I made it a little while ago and will re-heat it later when I do the pasta as we have TLM this evening and overnight and it's easier to have our meal when he's gone to bed.  He's just finished off a huge plate of fishfingers and chips (his favourite by a long shot) and a tub of yoghurt and we're all watching Shaun the Sheep on iTunes on the posh TV in the lounge; having persuded him that Dip Dap isn't for the over 3's!  Result!!

Ok so for the sausage pasta...in a large pan I softened a chopped onion and added four cloves of garlic.  Once soft I bunged in a good handful of baby tomatoes that were on offer at Sainsbury's, three whole bird's eye chillis (JazzBass Joe is eating tonight and he's not a hot food person...so keeping them whole means he won't inadvertantly eat one and spontaneously combust!) and a good sprinkle of dried oregano.  In went a whole sliced Matteson's smoked sausage and about a third of a chorizo that was also on offer at 2 for £4!  After a few minutes I added a carton of chopped tomatoes and the same amount of water.  Salt and peppered, brought to the boil and then simmered, whilst covered, for about half an hour and then uncovered (to reduce a bit) for another 20 minutes or so.  Heat off and lid on until ready to eat later.

I'll do this with some penne although any chunky pasta will work. Cook the pasta and stir the re-heated sauce in once drained.  A good sprinkle of grated mature cheddar seems to compliment it far better than parmesan for some reason...maybe it's the robust flavours.  You can add mushrooms if you want, more or less garlic and can omit any chilli heat completely to get things to your taste.  As I said at the start; it's a very forgiving dish!

If you do this with a kilo of pasta it will serve 6 - 8 people.