Malfatti Pasta with Sweet Italian Sausage & Arugula

Katy and Victor invited me over for dinner last night and Victor cooked up this delicious pasta dish. Fortunately, I didn’t know about all of the decadent ingredients last night – well, at least not about the butter. Had I known, I may have only eaten 2 plate-fulls instead of the 3 (or was it 4) servings. But you know, sometimes you just have to indulge – and this dish was worth the indulgence. Thanks Victor and Katy!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 pack of lasagna pasta sheets – randomly broken (hence why malfatti)

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic cloves – finely chopped

6 sweet Italian sausages – roughly chopped

1 pack of dried porcini mushrooms

1 can of peeled tomatoes

1 tbs butter

2 cups of arugula

Salt & pepper

Grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions

Soak the dried mushrooms in a bowl of warm water for about 15 minutes. Drain the mushrooms but keep a little bit of the water to add to your pasta sauce (about 1/4 cup).

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until translucent (about 3 minutes). Add the sausages and stir occasionally until they are cooked (about 10 minutes). Mix in the tomatoes, butter, mushrooms and the 1/4 cup of water they soaked in. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer for about 15 minutes.

In a large pasta pot, add water and salt. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat.  Add the malfatti pasta and cook until al dente (about 12 minutes). Drain the pasta and add it to your skillet, mixing it well with the sausage, tomato, and mushroom sauce. Add a little bit of the pasta water to the sauce if too dry.

Transfer to your serving dish and top it off with the arugula. Serve with the grated Parmesan cheese.