I generally like a little meat with my pasta dishes. When I was making maranara sauce with this years crop of tomatoes, I just naturally had to try it out, so I put some chicken and sausage with it, added a little red wine and cream cheese and voila! Sister gave it a gold star!
Ready in
40 mins
Added to favorites by 29 cooks
Ingredients
Serves: 4
2 Tablespoonsolive oil, plus a little more for the pasta
1 poundItalian sausage (hot or sweet), cut into 1/2-3/4" chunks
1 Tablespoonkosher salt
1 Tablespooncoarse ground black pepper
3 Tablespoonsall purpose flour
4skinless boneless chicken breast halves
1 pounddried spaghetti or linguini
1/2 cupred wine (merlot is a good choice)
4 cups(32 liquid ounces) tomato based marinara sauce
In a large sauté pan over medium high heat, bring the olive oil up to temperature. Add the sausage pieces and sauté just until done, about 8-10 minutes. Remove the sausage pieces to a paper towel lined plate to drain.
2.
Meanwhile, sprinkle half the salt, pepper and flour on each side of the chicken breasts, patting it into the meat firmly.
3.
Drain the sauté pan of all but about 2 Tablespoons of the sausage drippings, reduce the heat to medium and add the chicken breasts. Cook them until just done (internal temperature 165°), 8-10 minutes on each side. Add them to the pile of sausage pieces to drain.
4.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Sprinkle on a little olive oil and gently toss it to coat the pasta. Set aside.
5.
Drain all the remaining drippings out of the sauté pan. Over medium high heat, de-glaze the pan by pouring in the red wine and scraping up the fond. Add the marinara sauce and stir to combine it with the wine. Add the cream cheese and stir it until it has melted into the sauce. Turn the heat down to low and add the sausage pieces and chicken breasts back to the pan. Stir just enough to coat everything with the sauce. Cover the pan and let it all warm up for 5 minutes.
6.
Uncover the pan and add the pasta. Toss/stir just enough to coat the pasta with sauce, then serve with a little finely grated parmesan or pecorino Romano cheese.
Alternate method
I usually have a couple packages of Italian sausage in the freezer. I will take a pound out of the freezer, let it sit at room temperature for about half an hour, then cut the chunks while it is still a little frozen. Works great and the pieces don't squish as I cut them!