Rigatoni alla Jonny

My brother and sister-in-law had the family over for Christmas dinner this year. The pasta course that my brother made was really, really good so I figured that I'd try to recreate it without an actual recipe. It was rigatoni with a pink sauce, sausage and peas. It turned out well though a little different from my brother's recipe. Here's what you need:

Rigatoni alla Jonny

Ingredients
2 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 TBS butter
2 TBS of EVOO
1 C of heavy cream
1lb of Italian sausage (hot or sweet)
1 C of frozen peas
1-1.5 lbs of cooked rigatoni, al dente
1 TBS crushed red pepper
1 tsp dried basil
salt & pepper, to taste
grated Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Start but removing the casing from the thawed Italian sausage. Place sausage in saute pan over medium heat, with 1 TBS EVOO to prevent sticking, and begin cooking sausage and breaking it up as you go. The sausage with take about 10-15 minutes to completely cook through over medium heat. Once cooked, remove sausage from pan, place in bowl and keep off to the side. In same saute pan, over medium-high heat, saute onion in 1 TBS butter and 1 TBS of EVOO until translucent. Add cans of tomatoes, dried basil, and heavy cream and stir to incorporate. Let sauce heat through over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once sauce starts bubbling, add the sausage back into the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Turn heat down to medium-low and stir in the peas and crushed red pepper. Let sauce simmer for another 10 minutes. Add salt & pepper to taste. Serve over cooked rigatoni and top with grated Parmesan cheese. Buon appetito (thanks Jonny).

Love,

Michele