If you are looking for a quick and delicious meal, look no further. This Sausage and Mushroom Penne ticks all the boxes. Italian sausage provides a base flavour that gives this pasta a big impact with only a few ingredients. Cremini mushrooms and rosemary add depth and body. White wine, stock, and cream create a rich yet elegant sauce. And parmesan cheese ties it all together to create a dish that you would happily pay good money for in any high-end restaurant. Oh, and it takes less than 30 minutes to make, start to finish, even with limited culinary skills. Sounds good, right? Well, what are you waiting for?
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How To Make Sausage and Mushroom Penne
The first thing you need to do when making this pasta is to get a large pot of hot water on the stove on high heat. Add a teaspoon of salt to it. Put a lid on it, and forget about it while you prep your ingredients.
Minced Onion
First up, take half an onion and mince it. Really just cut it as small and as evenly as you can. The recipe above says you need half a cup of onion, but if you have a little more or a little less, it isn't going to hurt anything. Just use half an average-sized onion. It will always be enough and never be too much.
Sliced Garlic
Peel two cloves of garlic and slice them as thin as you can. You can mince the garlic if you'd prefer, but I like to have those nice thin slices in the pasta. Also, just like with the onion, if your cloves are a little bigger or a little smaller, it isn't the end of the world. If they are a little small, add a third clove, otherwise, don't worry about it too much. I promise it will not have a noticeable effect on the final dish. As long as there are about two cloves of garlic in there, it will be fine.
Cremini Mushrooms
Cremini mushrooms are available in almost every grocery store nowadays though they may be listed as brown mushrooms, mini-bellas, or some other name I've never heard before. Just look for a small brown mushroom. These have much more flavour than standard white mushrooms and a nicer texture too. Remove and discard the mushroom stems. Cut the mushroom in half, then cut it into slices. I like to make slices about half a cm or an eighth of an inch thick. Use four to five mushrooms, depending on their size.
Rosemary
Get one sprig of fresh rosemary. Hold it at the top of the stem between your thumb and index finger. With your other hand, grab the rosemary sprig with a gentle but firm grip right below your first hand. Now, pull down. This should strip most if not all of the needles off the sprig. Pull the top off and add it to the needle pile. Discard the stem. Bunch the needles into a nice little pile and cut them as small as you can. One sprig of rosemary should be about a teaspoon once chopped. What I'm about to say may come as a surprise to you, but it doesn't matter if you have a little more or less chopped rosemary than what is listed in the recipe. Just go with what you get off of one sprig.
Sausage
Take two Italian Sausages (I used mild-Italian Sausage), make a slice down the length of the sausage and remove the meat from the casing. Discard the casing and set the meat aside. Whatever Italian sausage you can get from your local grocery store will be fine. I didn't use anything fancy, and you don't need to either. Though, if you want to use a locally sourced, organic Italian sausage, go for it.
Cooking the Sausage and Mushroom Penne
By the time you're done preparing all of your ingredients, your pasta water should be boiling. Before you put your pasta on, get a large skillet on the stove over medium-high heat. Let the pan heat up for a minute or two, then add a few tablespoons of olive oil and the sausage meat. Break the sausage meat apart with a wooden spoon and cook it for 3 to 4 minutes or browned. Drop the pasta in the water and cook according to the package instructions.
If you love pasta dishes like this one, you might also enjoy my 5 Simple Pasta Dishes for more quick weeknight inspiration. And if you are a fan of mushrooms, be sure to check out my Restaurant-Style Mushroom Risotto for another deeply flavourful dish.
Onions in the pan
Add the onion into the pan with the sausage meat and cook for 2 minutes.
Mushrooms and Garlic in the pan
Put the mushrooms and garlic in the pan and continue to cook for 2 to 3 more minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked, and the onions have softened.
Deglaze the pan
At this point, there are probably some bits of food stuck to the bottom of your pan. Worry not, my friend, because it is now time to grab a nice bottle of white wine and deglaze your pan. Pour about a quarter cup of white wine into the pan and scrape up any bits of food that have stuck to the surface of the pan. These bits add lots of flavour to the sauce. Continue cooking the wine until it has all but evaporated and the pan starts to sizzle.
Rosemary and Stock
Throw the chopped rosemary into the pan along with about half a cup of beef or chicken stock. The store-bought stuff is fine, and if anyone tells you differently, send them to me, and I'll set them straight. Of course, if you want to make the stock from scratch, go for it. It is easy to do. See below.
How to Make Stock
Put a chicken carcass in a pot (leftover from a roast chicken is fine) with sliced onion, half a carrot, sliced, and half a stalk of celery sliced. Add in a bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme or a sprig of rosemary and cover it all with cold water. Put it on the stove on high heat, bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer it for an hour. Strain the liquid. Discard the bones and vegetables. That golden liquid you have is chicken stock. You can do the same thing with beef, pork, or fish bones. The broth is made the same way but with meat instead of bones.
Cream
Let the beef stock and rosemary boil for about 2 minutes, then add in half a cup of whipping (heavy) cream. Before you ask, no, you can't use a blend, coffee cream, or milk. It has to be whipping cream because you need that high-fat content, so the dairy doesn't curdle. You aren't using enough of it to worry that much about the calories, so just go for it.
Pasta
Once the cream goes in, bring it to a boil, add in the cooked and drained pasta, and about a quarter cup of grated or shaved parmesan cheese. Continue to cook for another minute or so or until the sauce is thick enough to coat the pasta. You might find it helpful to cook the pasta one minute less than the package instructions say. That way, the pasta can finish cooking in the sauce and won't be overcooked. That's it! You've just made Sausage and Mushroom Penne worthy of any restaurant menu.
Tips for the Best Sausage and Mushroom Penne
Not many things in this life are better than the pleasures of a really good pasta dish. I include pasta from all parts of the world in that, be it a nice Italian-style pasta, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, whatever it is, when it's done well, it is an extraordinary thing.
One thing that is as true with pasta as it is with any other food is that the less you mess with it, the less fuss, and the fewer ingredients you add, the better it is likely to be. I hope that this Sausage and Mushroom Penne illustrates that point to you.
Here are a few extra tips to keep in mind when you make this recipe:
- Don't overcook the pasta. Pull it a minute early and let it finish in the sauce. The starch from the pasta water also helps thicken the sauce beautifully.
- Save a splash of pasta water. If the sauce gets too thick, a bit of starchy pasta water loosens it right up without diluting the flavour.
- Use real parmesan. Pre-grated cheese contains anti-caking agents that can make the sauce gritty. Freshly grated or shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano melts smoothly and tastes far better.
- Don't skip the deglaze. Those browned bits on the bottom of the pan are pure flavour. The white wine lifts them right off and adds a lovely depth to the sauce.
This is one of those recipes that I come back to on busy weeknights when I want something that feels special but doesn't require hours in the kitchen. The whole thing comes together in under 30 minutes, and it never fails to impress. Make this. You won't be disappointed.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 2 Mild Italian Sausages
- ½ cup Minced Onion
- 1 cup Cremini Mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
- 2 cloves Garlic, sliced
- 1 teaspoon Rosemary, chopped
- ¼ cup White Wine
- ½ cup Chicken or Beef Stock
- ½ cup Whipping Cream
- ¼ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
- 250 g Dried Pasta
- 1 teaspoon Salt plus more to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Fill a large pot ¾ of the way with hot water, add 1 teaspoon of salt. Cover the pot and put it on the stove on high heat. Bring to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package instructions.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. Put the olive oil and sausage meat in the skillet. Use a wooden spoon to stir and break the meat up. Cook, for 3 to 4 minutes or until browned.
- Add the minced onion to the sausage meat and cook for 2 minutes.
- Put the mushrooms and garlic in the pan with the sausage meat and onions. Cook for 2 more minutes.
- Deglaze the pan with the white wine and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the stock and rosemary. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the cream. Bring to a boil, add the cooked pasta and parmesan. Cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat the pasta.
- Taste the sauce, season as needed with salt and pepper and serve.
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