Penne Rigate All'Olio In Stile Rustico

Oily pasta had been on my mind. I wanted to create a rustic pasta dish that wasn't heavy on sauce, yet flavorsome. I craved oily texture on the pasta while not oily in flavor, but with subtle sharpness. It was a tall order, even if it was mine. So, I put on my apron and entered the kitchen without much expectation. I grabbed spicy Italian sausage because the sausage is always the correct choice, Pecorino Romano for its sharpness, and tomato for its tangy acid. 

I rarely nail a recipe on its first recipe testing session. You've seen on @foodieExhalingLife Instagram that it often takes several attempts over months for recipes to be shared here. Sometimes a recipe testing doesn't deliver what I was working towards, but an unexpected new dish that pops with deliciousness. Slow Cooked Gochujang Chicken is one of those dishes.

Rare, but it happened. My craving for an oily flavorsome pasta dish that felt rustic was satisfied on the first recipe test of Penne Rigate All'Olio In Stile Rustico.

INGREDIENTS

five ounces of dry Penne Rigate

six ounces of spicy Italian sausage

a half cup of grated Pecorino Romano

a half of tomato, diced

lemon zest from one lemon

two tablespoons of white wine

one tablespoon plus two teaspoons of olive oil

sea salt to taste

freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Bring enough water to cook five ounces of Penne Rigate to boil in a pot. Add the pasta with three generous pinches of sea salt. Stir once or twice. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and set it aside. 

While the pasta is cooking, heat a Dutch oven over high heat. Once heated, add spicy Italian sausage and break up the meat into small chunks. Occasionally stir until cooked, turn off the heat, and remove cooked sausage to a heat safe bowl while keeping the grease from the meat in the Dutch oven. 

Return the Dutch oven to the stove top over high heat and add two teaspoons of olive oil. Once the oil is heated, add minced garlic and lemon zest. Sauté for a second, add cooked pasta, and reduce the heat to medium-high. Sauté and mix to evenly coat the oil, garlic, and zest with pasta.

Add grated cheese and lower the heat to medium. Stir and coat the pasta evenly with the cheese. Add wine and stir. Add the remaining one tablespoon of olive oil and cooked sausage. Stir and mix. Add tomato, and stir and mix. Once the tomatoes become slightly tender, taste. Add small pinches of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to your taste. Remove from the heat and serve.