Pasta for the Pathetic

I learned this little trick from Jamie Oliver - to make meatballs for pasta out of Italian sausage links - and it has saved my bacon several times, most recently now that I have a nasty cold, don't feel much like cooking, and who wants to eat when you can't taste anything, anyway?

My Beloved, that's who. So, I got out a can of tomato sauce, two Italian sausage links, onions, garlic, green onions, mushrooms, shallot, red wine, yadda and made a very quick sauce for cappellini.

You make the meatballs by pulling out of the sausage casings little bite-sized dollops of filling and browning them thoroughly in olive oil before adding the chopped onions, minced garlic, quartered mushrooms to the pan along with whatever herbs you like (I used oregano, rosemary and thyme). Saute those together until you can smell the herbs over the rest, then add the tomato sauce and a cup or so of red wine and simmer until the sauce is as thick as you prefer.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta, drain it and add it to the sauce, tossing it around while still a little wet, so it will absorb all the lovely flavor of the sauce. I dressed the finished dish with slivered green onions for color and a nice grating of fresh Parmesan cheese.

If I hadn't had a head cold and had my wits about me, I'd have added some fresh chopped tomato at the end, just to heat it through and give the dish a freshness but I don't do my best work when my sinuses feel as if they are stuffed with cotton. Pathetic. But, My Beloved didn't think so!