Most of us associate pasta and sausage with a dense, heavy tomato sauce, the kind that is so Italian-American it is just about indigenous. Yet sausage can contribute to a relatively light, almost delicate pasta sauce, especially if it is used in small amounts. In fact, sausage is the ideal meat to use in a quick pasta sauce, because it is preseasoned and cooks almost instantly.

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 to 6 servings

　　Salt and freshly ground black pepper

　　1 tablespoon butter

　　1/2 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, removed from the casing

　　1 pound ziti or other cut pasta

　　1/2 cup or more freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

　　

Step 1

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put the butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. As it melts, crumble the sausage meat into it, making the bits quite small, 1/2 inch or less in size. Add 1/2 cup of water and adjust the heat so that the mixture simmers gently.

　　

Step 2

Cook the pasta until it is tender but not at all mushy. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta-cooking water.

　　

Step 3

Drain the pasta and dress with the sauce, adding some of the reserved cooking liquid if necessary. Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary. Toss with the Parmigiano-Reggiano and serve.

　　

Variations

Step 4

White Pasta with Sausage and Onions: Before adding the sausage, gently cook about 1 cup minced onion in the butter until it is translucent. Proceed as directed.

　　

Step 5

Red Pasta with Sausage: Still far lighter than the pasta with sausage you’re expecting. Core, cut up, seed, and drain 5 to 6 plum tomatoes; they may be fresh or canned. Add them to the sauce along with the sausage.

　　

Step 6

Add about 1 teaspoon minced garlic or a couple of tablespoons minced shallot to the butter as it melts.

　　

Step 7

Toss in a handful of chopped fresh parsley or basil at the last moment or add about 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or minced fresh sage along with the sausage.

　　

Step 8

Use red wine as the cooking liquid; its astringency offsets the sweet richness of butter and meat beautifully.

　　From Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times by Mark Bittman Copyright (c) 2007 by Mark Bittman Published by Broadway Books.Mark Bittman is the author of the blockbuster Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.