spaghetti & chicken sausage a-la-Triff

When you cook, you nurture. -- Julia Childs

This recipe is an Italian-American classic, a comforting meal. It's pretty simple, and quick to make too.

Ingredients: 

3 or 4 organic chicken-sausages from Wholefoods or the Gardener's Market in Coconut Grove (they have different varieties: feta, asiago, sun-dried tomato, etc), spaghetti (any brand will do), Xtra-virgin olive oil, fresh sage and basil, peperoncino (red pepper), good Parmesan cheese, plenty of garlic, a bit of fresh ginger, a good Pinot Grigio, canned tomatoes (optimally, you should make your own sauce like I did), but for the sake of brevity, you could use Hunt's "diced" an Cento "crushed" varieties.

Execution: 

Cut all the sausages in one-inch sections & set them aside. Chop the garlic and mince the ginger. Get the oil going at medium-to-high. As the garlic sizzles in the pan, add the diced tomatoes and a bit of the "crushed" tomato on top of the mix. Pour a generous quantity of white wine. You'll get a nice burst of edible aromas from the wine chocking the concoction. Get water to boil in a 6-8 quarter pan. Add the pasta "as is." How much pasta should you use? A serving is the amount of noodles that fit inside your curled index-finger over your thumb's first knuckle. The pasta should be "al dente," as such: 

The saucepan above is a Ruffoni copper-ware. In it I cook my risottos and tomato sauces. Copper is an excellent heat conductor (don't worry, you can make a tasty sauce with a regular pan, just make sure your ingredients can "dance" in the pan without being overcrowded). Let the sauce thicken for 10-15 minutes at medium heat. You can always tweak for desired consistency; for a thicker sauce you could dissolve a bit of cornstarch with water or combine an egg-yolk dissolved with just a touch of lemon (when the sauce is ready to be served mix it with the rest of the sauce, caution, it shouldn't be too hot or the egg will coagulate). 

To serve, add  the chopped basil and sage. Trick: to properly chop the herbs so they don't get bruised, rock your chef-knife forward and back. Accompany your pasta with a nice Italian Chianti or a California Pinot Noir (here' my pick). 

To mop the left-over juices, nothing better than a baguette rustic. This is the final result: