A simple classic from Italian kitchens: spaghetti with sausage and cream. This comfort food is even more simple than pasta with sausage and bell pepper, or with porcini, sausage, and cream. And it can be prepared in the time it takes to cook the spaghetti. As usual with recipes for pasta sauce with sausage, the meat is taken out of the casings and chopped. So if you do make your own sausage, there is no need to put it in a casing. The red wine is an optional ingredient that will add some flavor and complexity. To keep it even more simple, use some pasta cooking water instead.
Ingredients
For 2 servings
200 grams (7 oz) sausage meat
1/2 onion, minced
150 grams (1/3 lb) spaghetti
80 ml (1/3 cup) red wine (optional)
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
125 ml (1/2 cup) cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
Preparation
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion.
Cook the onion over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onion is golden, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, take the sausage meat out of its casing and chop it.
When the pasta water boils, add salt and the spaghetti and set the timer for the time indicated on the package for al dente.
When the onion is golden, add the sausage meat.
Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula over medium high heat…
…until the sausage has lost its raw color.
Add 80 ml (1/3 cup) of red wine (or pasta cooking water).
Cook over medium high heat, stirring, until half of the wine has evaporated.
Add 125 ml (1/2 cup) of cream.
Cook over low heat until the sauce thickens somewhat.
When the timer beeps, drain the spaghetti and add to the sauce.
Add a generous amount of freshly grated parmigiano as well.
Toss to mix.
Serve at once on preheated plates.
Flashback
Gravlax is easy to make at home and so delicious!
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
Spaghetti?? ….. Or bucatini 😝
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You’re right, I used bucatini. Well spotted!
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Another perfect example of Italian simplicity!!!
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Simple and delicious!
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My favourite, but they have to be the very best sausages…
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One can sense that the weather is getting cold in the Netherlands : comfort food galore 🙂 ! Agree with Sandra: don’t use sausages too much but am all enamoured in the very lean kangaroo ones at the moment – heaps of flavour . . .well, they call ’em ‘Kanga bangers’ and I haughtily go ‘hmph’ but the taste is fine!!
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I enjoy reading your recipes and in some instances I try them. The ones I have tried I have found to be very reliable. I strive to cook authentic cuisine. How would the Italians view using thick yogurt in the place of cream? Would using yogurt make the dish unauthentic? Thanks for your recipes, Stefan.
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Hi Jeremy,
Authenticity is a difficult concept when it comes to food, because there is no clear definition and unauthentic doesn’t necessarily mean it is bad.
I like to use three definitions.
1) Would an Italian make this?
2) Could you give this dish the same name?
3) Does it change the character of the dish?
Let’s look at these two definitions.
1) I have actually learned the use of yogurt in a pasta dish from an Italian, so I know for a fact that *a* Italian would make it. However, it certainly is not common.
2) As this dish is called “pasta with sausage and cream”, you could definitely not use yogurt and still call it “…and cream”.
3) The creaminess of the cream is an essential part of this dish. It depends a bit on the type of yogurt (the acidity of the yogurt and the fat content), but it is likely that the character is changed.
Not all the recipes I make are authentically Italian. I always point out in the post when a recipe is something I created. Like one time when I made ravioli with shrimp, Thai green curry, and coconut milk. That clearly was not authentic, but it is unbelievably delicious.
Hope this helps.
Stefan
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Aha! All done in the time the pasta cooks! Used your italian sausage recipe (as I have done for other dishes).
Easy to prepare and delicious to eat.
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