Baby Mac's easiest-ever midweek dinner

You know when you think back to your childhood and there was one dinner that was your very favourite? Pure comfort food that you always asked for, or when your desperate pleas of starvation were met with it for dinner and you were just beside yourself? For me, that might have been Mum’s crumbed cutlets. Or maybe lamb roast. It was most definitely NOT her lemon chicken. It may have been the humble boiled egg when I really think about it…

But for my kids? It’s this one: sausage pasta. Cheap as chips, tasty AS, simple to make and quickly takes you from “OH MY GOD WHAT AM I GOING TO MAKE THEM FOR DINNER?” to “Dinner’s ready!”

The best thing about this pasta, is that it can be fancied up or down. The better quality the sausages, the better the sauce will be. I use Italian pork sausages but you really can use whatever flavour you like! Got some droopy kale in the bottom of the crisper? Add it in! You can hide all manner of green things in this and they will be eaten. Use fresh rosemary if you have it, dried if you don’t.

This Baby Mac family favourite is sure to be requested at least weekly around these parts. 

Sausage & tomato pasta

Serves: 5-6
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

• 500g pasta (we used rigatoni)
• 6 Italian pork sausages (or other sausage flavour of choice), skins removed (see tips, below)
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp dried rosemary or 1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves picked 
• 1 handful cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 handful leafy greens (such as kale or spinach)
• 300ml tomato passata
• a dash of cream

Method:

1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, fry off the sausage meat with the onions, garlic and rosemary, until browned, breaking up the sausage meat with your wooden spoon as you go.
3. Add in cherry tomatoes and leafy greens.
4. Add in the tomato passata (you can add more if you like it to be wetter and more tomatoey).
5. Add dash of cream – avoid adding too much cream so the strong tomato flavor of the sauce is preserved. 
6. Season with lashings of pepper and a little salt, then tip over the cooked pasta.
7. Eat immediately. Be prepared for seconds and enjoy! 

VARIATIONS:

For this recipe, we used cherry tomatoes and leafy greens. You can add the vegetables of your choice.

TIPS:

To remove skin from sausages, make a cut down the side of each sausage while holding it, then peel back its skin. This wastes less meat than the squeeze-out method.

What’s the one dish your kids ask for again and again and again?

Beth of Baby Mac has been blogging since 2006 and made the move from the city to the country in 2010. On Baby Mac she writes about her family, life in the country, entertaining and recipes, interiors – with a good dose of humour on the side.

Instagram: @babymacbeth

Visit: www.baby-mac.com

Sausage & tomato pasta