My "fall back" Linguine Sauce

Everyone has those "fall back" recipes that are quick, easy and always turn out delicious. I started making this Linguine sauce when we were in our temporary kitchen during our construction. We ate quite a bit of soup and pasta while we were living in our basement.

For the first few months of our construction, we had a hot plate and the refrigerator and that's it. No sink except a bathroom sink located on the first floor. So every night I had to run upstairs with dirty dishes and wash them in the sink and the drying rack was on our clothes hamper!

As the construction progressed, the temporary kitchen moved in the new basement laundry room. No oven but I graduated to 2 hot plates, a toaster oven, deep fryer and my slow cooker. And I could roll out dough on top of the washer and dryer and believe it or not, twice I canned jelly!!! All in all, we were in the temporary kitchen for 1 year and 3 months which is not too bad but it was a long time without an oven. And going through major holidays with no cookies was terrible!! Of course my family sent me cookies but it was not the same.

While in construction I made my fall back linguine sauce at least every 2 weeks. I moved in my new kitchen in Aug/Sept '07 and I still my sauce at least once a month. It's delicious and easy.



Michelle's Linguine with Red Sauce
Recipe developed in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

1 lb linguine
1/2 lb mild Italian sausage **See note
1/2 can good quality Italian Plum Tomatoes (5-6 whole tomatoes and juice)
3 TBL EVOO
2 TBL minced garlic
5-6 sun dried tomatoes, sliced thin
1 c. fresh basil, minced
2 sprigs of fresh tarragon, minced
1/2 tsp hot Hungarian paprika
1/2 c. fresh parsley, minced
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Break up sausage into bit-sized pieces. In a heavy bottomed pot, over low heat add EVOO and when it's warm add the Italian sausage and slowly fry until no pink remains. Turn down burner to simmer. At the same time, put water in your pasta pot and follow package directions to cook the pasta.

When the pasta is done and in the strainer, turn the burner to medium and add the tomatoes. Break up the tomatoes with a fork. Add the dried tomatoes, garlic, herbs, paprika and pepper and simmer for a few minutes. Add about 1/2 the juice from the can of tomatoes. Continue to simmer for about 5 minutes and then add the fresh chopped parsley and gently stir. Serve hot over linguine and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Note: I use my homemade mild Italian sausage.






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