If you saw Gorgonzola and clicked on this recipe you are a fan of Gorgonzola - welcome! I've always loved it. My first time eating it was in an appetizer and I fell madly in love... with this cheese. 🙂 We've had a rainy summer and a cool August so far and it feels like it's time for comfort foods like pasta. I've got a great option for you here with my Gorgonzola rigatoni with sausage and basil.
Pasta for a Crowd or Tasty Leftovers for Lunch
I love making pastas where you cook a few things and they all end up in a big bowl that you toss together with cheese and pasta water. Great pasta dishes need a flavor base. This flavor base is onions, garlic, red pepper, and white wine. We'll make a creamy-ish sauce by adding a small amount of starchy, salted pasta water to our big bowl, shaker parmesan cheese and salty, pungent Gorgonzola cheese. Throw in some cooked Italian sausage and you now have a feast to devour!
If you are a regular reader of my website, you know that I tend to cook with leftovers in mind. This is a great way to save a little money and stop spending your hard-earned cash on expensive lunches. Make a little extra for dinner and you have lunches for a couple of days too. My Gorgonzola rigatoni with sausage and basil reheats well too - tastes just as delicious as when you first made it. Simply put some pasta in a bowl, add a couple splashes of water and microwave a couple of minutes. Stir after reheated to reconstitute the creaminess and you're done!
Gorgonzola Rigatoni is Pure Comfort Food
That first time I had Gorgonzola cheese in an appetizer is a food memory I cherish. I eventually made my own version of Warm Shrimp and Gorgonzola Crostini if you want to check out that recipe too. But this was theeee moment I realized I was absolutely made about gorgonzola cheese. And I realize it's not for everyone. It is similar to bleu cheese, but waaaayyyy better. So if you like bleu cheese, you will mostly likely love gorgonzola.
For the pasta, I went with rigatoni which I love, but don't use too frequently. I found it paired really well with the other ingredients and is the perfect pasta for a melty, creamy Gorgonzola to cling to. Of all my favorite comfort foods, pasta among them, Italian sausage tops the charts for me. I adore sausage and when paired with pasta it's the kind of deliciousness you can create at home that begs the question: Why, exactly, do we need restaurants?
I'm a little bit serious about that statement. Restaurants are out-of-control expensive right now. Let's get back to basics and cook for ourselves. There has never been a better time - and MORE resources - to learn to how to cook. It's also an incredible tradition we should be passing to future generations. Stop for a minute. Relax. Share a home cooked meal with your friends and families. I know for me - I always feel better when I do this.
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Gorgonzola Rigatoni with Sausage and Basil
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 portions 1x
Description
Gorgonzola rigatoni with sausage and basil is the pasta recipe you didn’t even know you needed. Creamy, comforting, delicious.
Ingredients
- 8 mild Italian sausages
- 1 tablespoon olive oil for pan
- 1 cup of chopped basil, sliced into strips (chiffonade style)
- 1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, divided, plus more for garnish (see note #1)
- ¼ cup pasta water (DON’T FORGET TO RESERVE THIS)
- 1 pound of rigatoni (cooked per packaged instructions)
- 1 cup shaker parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup FRESH grated parmesan cheese, optional garnish
For the onions & peppers:
- 3 tablespoons garlic, finely diced (about 6-8 cloves)
- 1 cup diced red pepper (1 medium pepper)
- ½ cup onion, finely diced (½ of medium onion)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus extra
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
- ¾ cup white wine, any kind
NOTE: For the pasta water I usually use 2 teaspoons of salt. HOWEVER, gorgonzola is a salty cheese so I only used ONE teaspoon of salt for the pasta water to cook the rigatoni. You shouldn’t use more than one teaspoon for this recipe or the dish will be over salted.
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a large pan, spread it over the bottom of the pan and place the mild Italian sausage on the bottom of the pan. Cover your pan with a lid and cook on medium heat for about 20-25 minutes until the sausage are cooked all the way through. Turn them throughout the cooking process to brown the outside.
- While the sausage are cooking – do your other prep work.
- Fill a large pot with water leaving a little room at the top. Add one teaspoon of salt this water – no more than this. Heat the water to bring to a boil.
- Finely dice the garlic. I usually slice into thin rounds first, then dice it down into smaller bits from there.
- Cut the four sides of the red pepper, plus the bottom piece. Slice the pepper into thin strips and then dice into smaller chunks from there (my video shows this well).
- Finely dice ½ cup of onion. Any kind will do. I used Vidalia, but white or red work too if that’s what you have on hand.
- Stack your basil leaves in top of each other – do 10 leaves at a time. Roll up your stack of 10 basil leaves like a cigar then slice into thin strips (chiffonade style). I don’t know how large your basil leaves are – repeat this process until you fill one cup.
- To keep the basil fresh grab a few paper towels and wet them with water. Loosely wrap the sliced basil in the wet paper towel and set aside.
- Once your sausage are cooked, set them aside.
- Your water should be boiling and ready for the pasta when you start cooking the peppers and onions.
- Drop you pasta and be sure to stir it a few times while it cooks to make sure it’s not sticking together.
- Add olive oil to your pan along with the red peppers and onion. Cook on medium heat 2-3 minutes until they start to soften.
- Add garlic to the middle of the pan, plus another splash of olive oil. Keep garlic in middle pan to cook for 30 seconds – until fragrant. Then mix the garlic in with the peppers and onions. Cook another 2 minutes.
- Add ¾ cup of white wine to the pan. It should boil pretty much immediately when added to the pan. Cook this a few minutes while stirring. We want this wine to reduce a little – by about a quarter – then remove from the heat. My video shows this well.
- Cut the Italian sausage into rounds that are about ¼” thick. This next step us optional, but I do like to throw them back into the sausage pan on medium-high heat and crisp up the sausage a bit. It should take a couple of minutes.
- Meantime, the pasta will be done. RESERVE ¼ cup of pasta water from the pot before draining it.
- Drain the pasta in a colander and toss with a splash of olive oil so the pasta doesn’t stick together.
- ASSEMBLE THE PASTA: Add the cooked rigatoni to your largest mixing bowl. Add the flavor base of red pepper, onion, garlic and white wine. Next the shaker parmesan cheese, sausage (don’t let too much sausage grease get into the bowl), pasta water and gorgonzola cheese. Start with a heaping ½ cup of gorgonzola and mix it. Taste it. If you want more gorgonzola, add another ¼ cup here – this is what I did. Mix everything to combine. The heat will start to melt the gorgonzola and the pasta will have a creamy coating all over it. If you need more liquid – add HOT tap water, maybe a ¼ cup at a time until it reaches the right consistency for you. We don’t want to add any more salt to the dish. I didn’t add any additional water to this one – but if you want it to be a bit saucier add the extra water.
- To serve you can plate individually and add fresh basil to the tops of your plates. Or leave it in the bowl and grab a handful of fresh basil for the top. You can opt to stir the fresh basil in with the pasta dish, of course. For this one I preferred adding it to the top. Enjoy!
Equipment
Pasta Bowls (more colors available)
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Calphalon Saute Pan with Lid (5QT)
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Notes
- When you add the gorgonzola to the big mixing bowl at end – start with a heaping ½ cup, mix it and taste it. I like to add another ¼ cup here as well. In order to have enough gorgonzola to mix the pasta AND have some for garnish – you should buy two small containers of gorgonzola. They come in 5-ounce containers. You may end up with a little extra gorgonzola – use it for your salads!
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