Minimal work, maximum flavor. This merlot pasta sauce will leave your kitchen smelling like a dream as it simmers away, making you count down the minutes until dinner.
I love to talk talk recipes with people. I’m a firm believer that there is always room for more garlic, so when my husband’s grandma told me about her pasta sauce that uses an ENTIRE head of garlic I was immediately sold. I’ve since taken her recipe and ran with it, adding my own flair. Now merlot pasta is one of the meals I’m known for.
The most important aspect of this recipe is time. It’s very hands off once you get it going, but you must be patient to build flavor in the beginning. Trust me, the process is worth it. You’ll be left with a mouthwatering pasta that pairs so well with a kale salad and a glass of merlot. Can’t let the wine we didn’t use for cooking go to waste, right?
Jump to:
Ingredients
- Italian sausage
- red pepper flake
- olive oil
- garlic
- merlot
- crushed tomato
- Italian seasoning blend
- salt
- bucatini noodles (or your favorite pasta)
- freshly grated parmesan
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Step One: Brown the sausage. Start with a pound of Italian sausage, removed from its casing, and brown it in a dutch oven or other large pot. Heat your dutch oven over medium high heat and don’t touch the sausage until you get a hard sear. Continue to break apart the sausage, adding in red pepper flakes as the meat cooks, allowing it to create delicious crusty bits on the bottom of your pot. The caramelized bits of food are called fond. Fond is flavor! Don’t believe me? Try a piece of your italian sausage with no brown crusty parts, now try a piece that has been heavily browned. There should be a world of difference in texture and flavor. We will be scraping up every bit of our delicious fond to amp up the flavor of our sauce. Just watch it to make sure your fond stays a lovely brown color and doesn’t cross over into black, burnt, and bitter.
Step Two: Saute garlic. Push the italian sausage to the side, then add a healthy drizzle of olive oil and an ENTIRE head of garlic that has been peeled and minced. Yes, you read that right, the whole thing. This nifty roller and rocker help speed that process up, but between you and me there is nothing wrong with jarred garlic.
Step Three: Add remaining ingredients and simmer. Cook the garlic until fragrant, then pour in your merlot. My favorite is Coppola. We’re deglazing the pan here. Grab a wooden spoon, or other utensil that won’t damage your pot, and get to scraping. We want all of that delicious fond make its way off the bottom and into our sauce. After scraping you’ll add the crushed tomato, italian seasoning and salt, stirring everything together. Bring your sauce to a simmer and cover. Cook on medium low heat for 2.5 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so. Taste and adjust seasoning. If you think it needs more of something, trust yourself! You’re the chef. Cook the pasta according to package directions during the last 20 minutes of pasta cook time. Don’t forget to salt your pasta water!
Step Four: Add pasta, parmesan and enjoy! Spoon over al dente pasta (My favorite is bucatini!). Top with a very generous amount of good, freshly grated, parmesan and pour yourself a glass of merlot. Buon Appetio!
Hint: If you didn’t read about fond above, go back and do that! It is key to the flavor of this pasta.
Give yourself the gift of prep!
In this section I will give you ways to freeze, re-purpose and/or use some of your ingredients for another meal. Save yourself some time and effort next time you’re in the kitchen!
Freeze: This sauce freezes so well. Use your preferred freezing method so you have sauce on hand next time you need a quick meal.
Make something else: Use leftover sauce to create a mouthwatering Merlot Lasagna.
Equipment
Dutch oven: I have found that a dutch oven is the best way to get those crispy bits as you brown the sausage. I have made this in a stainless steel pot and it works too, it just takes longer to create the brown crispy bits.
Wooden Spoon: A wooden spoon is best for scraping the bottom of your pot without damaging it.
Top Tip
Sometimes when the pot is too crowded the meat steams instead of getting brown, crispy, and delicious. The brown crispy bits on the bottom of your pot, aka fond, are key to maximizing the flavor of this sauce! If your meat is not browning, remove half of the sausage after all of it cooks through. Crank up the heat and really focus on browning what is left. Just toss the rest of the meat back in once you are happy with your fond.
FAQ
Visit the search results to see which questions come up under the People also ask section for your primary keyword, and answer them here
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with [this recipe]:
6
servings10
minutes2
hours40
minutes2
hours50
minutesMinimal prep and very hands off pasta sauce that will leave your kitchen smelling like a dream and you counting down the minutes until dinner.
Ingredients
1 pound mild Italian sausage, casing removed
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 head of garlic, peeled and minced
⅓ bottle merlot wine
2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomato
2 tablespoons Italian blend seasoning
2 teaspoons kosher salt
12 ounces bucatini pasta (or your preference)
Freshly grated Parmesan for topping
Directions
- Place a dutch oven or other large pot on the stovetop on medium high heat. Add Italian sausage and begin to brown the meat, ensuring the sausage gets a nice sear as it cooks.
- Continue to sear and break apart the meat. Add red pepper flakes.
- Push the sausage to the side of the pot. Add olive oil and garlic to the empty space. Cook until garlic is fragrant. About 1 minute.
- Pour in merlot and use a wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits of meat from the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in cans of crushed tomato, Italian seasoning blend, and salt
- Drop heat to medium low and simmer covered for 2 ½ hours, stirring every 30 minutes.
- During the last 20 minutes of cook time, cook pasta according to package directions.
- Taste and adjust seasoning. Spoon over pasta and top with freshly grated parmesan.
Notes
To do:
Before publishing, complete this checklist, deleting the list items as you complete them:
- The “related” recipe block is has a category or primary ingredient set
- The “pairing” section has recipes to be paired with this
- The Yoast primary category has been set
- Featured image has been set (1200×1200, JPG)
- Hidden pin has been set
- Check your recipe schema has been fully filled out at https://search.google.com/test/rich-results (after publishing)
- Check https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ to make sure this recipe has enough content above-the-fold to cause images to lazyload (after publishing)
Comments
No Comments