Pasta with Sausage, Basil and Mustard

I tried this recipe awhile back and was not impressed as is. Tonight, I made it but added: 1/2 sweet yellow onion sautéed with a drizzle of honey, added 1 lb of cudighi (or Italian sausage bulk if this is unavailable to you,) extra crushed red, thyme, 3 minced cloves of garlic, dried tarragon, and a good amount of cracked black pepper to sausage before adding a cup and a quarter Chardonnay. Inglehofer stone ground mustard and 40% heavy cream. I used two boxes of Creamette Homestyle Penne and the sauce was enough to lightly coat. I would probably use no more than 12oz pasta next time, however because it was coated but not extremely saucy. I loved it with the additions. It's a good base recipe.

We have a dairy free person and a gluten free person. My package of sausage was 1 lb but gluten-free pasta was 12 oz. Added shallot in with sausage. I used a nut based creamer with no sweetener in it. We found it delicious and a change of pace. I am sure cream would be fantastic but we had to make this work for us and it did. The fresh basil was a great boost to flavor. My husband inhaled a bowl and went back for 2nds!

Amazing, I made no changes!

The 3 star rating is actually for the recipe not the final product - which is fantastic by the way! Great flavor (with minor modifications), although you definitely need to like the tang of mustard to like this sauce. The 3 star rating is for the recipe quantities which are way off. (Shame on F&W test kitchen for releasing this as is!) Just by looking at this recipe, I could tell the sauce wouldn’t be enough unless doubled. Here’s what I did:
1. Double everything from white wine down to red pepper, otherwise there’s no way you will have enough sauce to cover 1lb of rigatoni.
2. Don’t double sausage – 2 lbs is plenty for doubled recipe. Also the direction for browning the sausage for “about 5 minutes” is ridiculous and careless advice for inexperienced cooks - you need to brown ground meat of any kind until there are no raw/pink pieces left. You can also save yourself A LOT of trouble by simply buying a package of ground Italian sausage vs. sausages in casings.
3. Don’t double the pasta – see #1
4. Saute ½ a diced white onion prior to cooking the sausage, then just saute the sausage over the onion.
5. After simmering the entire mixture for 6-8 minutes (not 2!), add ¼ c. grated parmesan to thicken up the sauce.
6. Dried basil added to the sauce while simmering works nicely if fresh basil is not available to garnish with at the end.
7. Cooking this in a “large deep skillet” will never work. (Even if not doubling the sauce!) I used a 9qt (#30) Le Creuset dutch oven and it was the perfect size for the doubled recipe.

This was the worst recipe I’ve ever eaten. It was absolutely horrible.

I LOVE this recipe. I use Impossible or Beyond spicy sausage and it is a wonderful vegetarian dish.

Excellent. Really tasty but I suggest you do not salt the water because the sausage is salty enough. I also used sweet sausage because my mom avoids spicy food. I saw someone comment on doubling the sauce. I agree. I would add twice as much heavy cream.

This is a delicious rich & savory meal that's quick & easy! I added a dash of Cayenne when browning the sausage & doubled the sauce, then topped it off with finely grated & shaved Pecorino Romano before serving. My husband loved it & I'll definitely be making it again!

A delicious combination of ingredients I hadn't had together before. And so easy!

Delicious. Next time I will double the sauce.

I made this last night with a few changes, skipped mint and cooked squash with tomatoes and used cavatelli since that is what was in my pantry. Delish

This is very very good. I wish the sauce was bit thicker to adhere to the rigatoni more. I suggest a textured pasta with this dish. That being said WOW. Serve this to anyone you want to impress. I sauteed fresh mushrooms and shallots then, added Hot Italian Sausage followed instructions after that.

First bite raised eyebrows, but the flavors grew on us until we decided it belonged on that 40 best list. Used 2 sweet and 2 hot sausages (about 1 lb), full sauce ingredients, added thawed spinach, and just a small pinch of red pepper. Perfect heat level for our tastes. Love the fact that this can be adjusted to whatever's in the pantry! Can already thing of several variations to try.

This is such a great base to build from- my favorite pasta dish is the Shrimp vin Santo from Bar La Grassa in Minneapolis and the ingredients/technique are strikingly similar. Didn't have a white wine or grainy mustard but did have dijon and a bottle of prosecco languishing in the fridge. This came out fantastic, I loved how it was simple to toss together but became something greater than the sum of its parts and how much the recipe lends itself to alterations/substitutions. As others have indicated, I'll make a bit more sauce next time.

Excellent! Added some thin-sliced onion and minced garlic once the sausage rendered it's fat. Otherwise, made it exactly as written. Really enjoyed it. A very unique and different taste. Will make it again.

I made this for 2 of us with a few adjustments: 8 ounces of pasta (mini penne), about 14 ounces of sausage before removing them from casings, added about 1/2+ cup of diced onion. I used the full sauce ingredients and that was perfect with the amount of pasta, etc. Mushrooms would have been a good addition but it was great as is. you could hardly taste the mustard and i used stone ground. This would definitely serve 6.

Made this as written, and what a fantastic addition to the weeknight supper rotation! I made a little more sauce, added some green beans and tomatoes (because my garden is going crazy with them right now) - my husband declared it perfect. I agree with Mr. Parker - any vegetable would be nice in this sauce.

Increased wine and cream to make more sauce. Didn’t have a grainy mustard, so used Dijon. Rigatoni instead of penne. Easy and quick, yet very tasty. This recipe is very flexible, could add vegetables (zucchini, spinach, or asparagus), onions, garlic, etc. However, very tasty as written.

So good and so simple and so quick! I use shells (they retain some of the salty cooking liquid when adding them to the meat-mustard mixture. It is hard to believe that something so simple can be so good. Guests rave!