We all have our favorite recipes. And we all have vices. This recipe combines the best (best?) of both of them in my little world.
I’ve been sitting on this recipe ever since I started blogging. It’s one of those recipes I make it at least once a month, a favorite staple in our house and one I break out when company shows up unexpectantly because I always have the ingredients on hand.
But because it’s such a favorite for dinner, it’s usually dark by the time I’m done cooking and we’re hungry and there’s no light to take a pretty picture or any pasta left anyway. Oh, the life of a food blogger, balancing hunger pains of the family for you my lovely readers.
I change this recipe up by using different sausages, different color peppers or sometimes none at all, thick cut pappardelle, rigatoni or fetuccine, whatever I have in the pantry. But I always make sure mushrooms and marsala wine are included.
The marsala wine is the key ingredient here. Simmered with fresh rosemary the marsala creates a flavor that doesn’t compare. Like I said, it’s my favorite and I use it in place of white wine all the time, with sautéed chicken dishes, in gravies and even in desserts like in my Mascarpone Pumpkin Mousse Cups. Obsessed I tell you.
Five tips for making and adapting my favorite pasta:
1. If you want to watch your cream intake, substitute it with ¼ cup or so of mascarpone or another creamy cheese to help thicken the marsala sauce.
2. Make sure your pasta is al denté when adding it to the sauce as you’ll want to cook it for a minute or two it it to soak up all of the winey/creamy notes.
3. If I don’t have rosemary in the fridge or its too snowy to snip some from the garden, I’ll toss in fresh basil or even thyme to keep it on the savory side. An added sprinkle of parsley adds a freshness before serving.
4. If you’re looking for a purely vegetarian version, ditch the sausage and use sliced portobello mushrooms to give some girth to the meal. Or if you’re a chicken lover, toss in a few slices or dices of uncooked chicken breast in the first step then add an additional tablespoon of olive oil with the peppers and onions and follow the directions from there. When adding the marsala wine, be sure to scrape up the flavor bits from the bottom of the pan.
5. Be careful not to add the tomatoes too early or they’ll bleed and begin to disappear into the sauce and leave nothing but a tomato skin. If using a tomato other than whole cherry tomato, be sure to seed it first and cut into a nice dice.
Sausage and Marsala Pappardelle
Ingredients
- 8 ounces pappardelle pasta
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 red bell pepper sliced
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- 4 links smoked turkey sausage sliced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 6 large mushrooms sliced
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
- 1 cup cream
- ½ cup sweet marsala wine
- kosher salt
- parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
- Bring a large stock pot of water to a boil then generously salt with kosher salt. Add pappardelle pasta and cook until al dente then drain, reserving ½ cup pasta sauce.
- While pasta is cooking begin cooking the sauce. In a 10-inch skillet over medium-high, heat olive oil and then add red bell pepper slices and onion and cook for 4-5 minutes or until onion softens, stirring occasionally. Season with kosher salt, add mushrooms and cook for another 3 minutes. Add garlic, turkey sausage and red pepper flakes and cook until turkey is warmed through, about 3 minutes.
- Add cream, marsala, tomatoes and rosemary to skillet and cook for about 3 minutes or until sauce thickens and tomatoes soften. Gently fold in pasta to skillet until coated. If you'd like more sauce, add reserved pasta water one tablespoon at a time or another pour or two of cream if you want a heavier sauce. Garnish with parmesan, kosher salt and more rosemary if desired. Serve immediately.
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Chicken Piccata Pasta
Pasta with Marinated Tomatoes
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My family loved this last night. I added a bit more red and yellow bell pepper and used spicey linguisa. It was delicious. Even my 11 year old pickey ester cleaned his plate
YAY!! thanks for sharing David.
My husband said it was one of my best, thank you!
Ok, this seriously needs to appear for dinner at my house tonight…my life will just not be complete until I try this!! This looks soooo good!
you are a joke go get a life you know a job well you dont know what that is you are a bim bo
Ahhhmazing!! I’ve made this twice now and we can’t get enough. My husband “thinks” he doesn’t like cream in anything so whenever I’m using it in a recipe I try to hide it. Well, per usual, he came snooping around and spotted the cream on the counter. He groaned “you’re not putting cream in it are you?” I just smiled and told him not to worry. He took one bite and was hooked. This is soooo good! Thank you!
So glad you like it, and your husband too. They don’t need to know ‘everything’, do they?
so you say to lie to them is that the kind of person you are ? o i forgot you are a very heave wine drinker
This turned out great — thanks! I used the whole 8 oz. mushroom container because we love them :) For the noodles, I used extra wide egg noodles, but I think linguine would be great too. We’ll be keeping this in our repertoire – thank you!
My brother gave this a try last weekend and we just could not get enough of it. This dish is just so flavorful that you will not even put your plate down to watch the NBAs. Thank you for such an incredible recipe. You definitely have to try this people!
Oh marsala how I love you. And mushrooms. And pappardelle and oh I love it all!
I’m loving this dish – thank you so much for sharing it. The first time I ate pappardelle was when my husband and I visited San Francisco for the first time, shortly after we were married. I fell in love with those tender and wide from-scratch noodles. And I’m sorry to say that I’ve never cooked with marsala. I’m definitely going to be trying this!