Fuzzy Fusilli with Barese Sausage

If my husband were to write a love song, it’d either be – I want to lay you on a bed of pasta, or When a man loves a (bowl of) pasta. His love for pasta is undying. And my love for him is well, known in town by now. This dish was created in my kitchen out of love. My love for him.

Oh, and before you think I have misled you into a delicious image of a romantic husband, let me tell you, he doesn’t write love songs. Mine writes financial software. That’s how deprived I am in the mush department.

So to compensate for my deprivation, I start everlasting conversations with ingredients in my pantry and fridge. And today the box of Fusilli told me to marry it with the Barese sausage I got from St. Lawrence Market.

The mixed pitted olives (green and kalamata) and sun-dried tomatoes came in handy too to invoke a whole lot of flavors in my dish.

Ingredients for Fuzzy Fusilli with Barese Sausage are:

4 cups of Fusilli
Barese sausage (you can use any hot sausage you want)
Half cup mixed olives (pitted)
Half cup sun-dried tomatoes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil

Cook the fusilli according to package instructions. I like to keep mine al dente. Drain and keep. I always generously salt my pasta while cooking, which means I don’t use salt later.

I grilled my sausages before I added them to the pasta. This was being done simultaneously in the oven. If you are using the thick sausages, make sure you poke them randomly with a fork to avoid any blasts in the oven.

Drizzle EVOO on the fusilli, throw in the olives and the sun-dried tomatoes.

Season with dried basil and black pepper. Once the sausages are done and are cool enough to handle, cut bite-size pieces of them and add into the pasta. Toss everything with the passion of an Italian. Serve warm as a main or a hearty lunch. And see how Cupid looks you back in the eye.