I’m so happy to have Amy from ABCD Design on the merriment blog today. If you read Amy’s blog, you know she is a woman of many talents, but she’s also one of the nicest people you will ever meet. My husband and I were in New York several months ago, when our flight was canceled. In no time at all, through the magic of twitter, Amy had invited us to a cocktail party – she’s so gracious. : )

Amy often blogs yummy dishes she’s making, many of them from a cookbook her mother prepared for her. I’ll let Amy tell you the story…When I turned 25, my mom gave me one of the best presents I could have ever asked for. She had hand-written out all of the recipes that she was known for and placed them into a binder for me. It’s just about the only recipe book that I ever pull from.

Today, Amy is sharing a recipe for Bow Tie Pasta with Sausage in a Tomato Cream Sauce.

From Amy: This recipe is thrown together really quickly and tastes like you spent hours slaving over the stove! The best part is that the sauce can be made the day before and be reheated when you are boiling the pasta. Prepping it the day before means it is a wonderful (and super easy) dish to serve to company.

Ingredients
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, casings remove and crumbled (I most often make it with pre-cooked sweet italian chicken sausage, sliced thin. It tastes fabulous!)
1/2 tsp. dried red pepper flakes
1/2 c. diced onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (28 oz.) Italian plum tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1/2 tsp. salt
12 oz. bow tie pasta (With the 1.5 cups of whipping cream, it is hardly heart healthy – but I like to use whole wheat pasta whenever I can.)
3 tbsp. minced fresh parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add sausage and pepper flakes. Cook until sausage is no longer pink, stirring frequently. Add onion and garlic to skillet and cook until onion is tender and sausage is light brown. Add tomatoes, cream and salt. Simmer until mixture thickens slightly. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water until tender. Serve sauce over pasta, garnish with chopped parsley and Parmesan cheese.

1. ABC Dragoo says:

   October 15, 2010 at 1:59 pm

   Courtney,

   Thank you ever so much for hosting me at your blog today!

   I love that you chose this recipe – it truly is a favorite of mine. It’s one of the first dishes I ever made for the Mr when he and I first started dating. His step father is Italian, and believe it or not, after having grown up eating his gradmother’s spaghetti he was still impressed by this dish early on in our courtship. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the night he realized he wanted to marry me. (winkwink)

   Thanks again for letting be be a part of your recipes for a happy marriage series ~ heck, it could be named recipes for a happy courtship, or recipes that will “seal the deal” series!
   xoxABCD

   P.S. Gosh, that night was a really fun cocktail party ~ wasn’t it? Your husband was such a champ to hang out with all us wedding world ladies for the evening! That really was a fun night I often think of our ‘put your hands up for Detroit’ conversation… I always wonder if I should still contact Chevy about that bright idea!
2. Lauren says:

   October 15, 2010 at 3:34 pm

   This looks wonderfully homey!! I like that it doesn’t look too creamy – something I will definitely try as the weather cools down!
3. Suzanne says:

   October 15, 2010 at 9:55 pm

   That is such a wonderful keepsake idea! I would love to do the same and give a cookbook to my daughter of my best recipes.