neurological dryer lint

renee likes her pasta pretty simple - with some grilled chicken, garlic and parmesan. i usually dial it up a bit more and go with chicken + alfredo + mushrooms, or sausage and tomato sauce... tonight i think i perfected the latter. this stuff absolutely ruled and i can't wait to make it again:

8-12oz italian sausage (1 piece)
8oz tomato paste (probably 1 can)
3 ripe roma tomatoes
1 cup onion (about 1/2 an onion)
1 cup celery (1 stalk)
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp basil (2 or 3 leaves)
1 tsp oregano
1/2 cup red wine

grill up your sausage, chop into 3/4" pieces. finely chop onion, celery and garlic, sautee onion and celery over low/medium heat in 2 Tbsp olive oil until soft, then at the last minute add the chopped garlic (otherwise that stuff burns quick). boil some water and drop your tomatoes in, leave for about a minute, then pull them out and remove the skin. core them & remove the seeds, then add to the sautee pan along with the sausage, tomato paste and red wine. let simmer for 5-10 minutes, add the basil and oregano (you could do parsley or fennel too) along with salt & pepper to taste and crushed red pepper flakes for heat, toss with some pasta (i used farfalle), serve with grated parmesan or romano.

careful with that crushed red pepper, though. renee's mom gave us some dried red peppers, i chopped and added a few to see how potent they were - on top of BFM's hot italian sausage, it about knocked me out of my chair.