Sausage and Penne alla Vodka

I love trying out recipes as well as adding to them and making up my own. Thankfully, I have not yet created something inedible. I first started making penne alla vodka a few years ago, using several different recipes. Then last summer, after having had a barbecue, we ended up with a lot of left over sausages. So I chopped them up, added some passata and cooked some pasta and it tasted really nice. Since then I have been making sausage pasta more often and have experimented a lot. I recently decided to combine penne alla vodka and sausage pasta and everyone seemed to love it, so I thought I would share the recipe here. Cooking is personal so feel free to add or take away whatever you want. I never use exact quantities either, because I usually have to cook for 4-6 people. This will serve around 6 hungry people but use however many sausages you want and however much pasta is enough for you. 

Ingredients:

500g penne pasta (or whichever pasta you want/have)

6 sausages

Olive oil

1 chili or a pinch of chili flakes (depends on how spicy you want it to be)

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp sage

1 tsp garlic powder (or 2 garlic cloves, chopped)

1/2 wine glass of vodka

500g passata

2-3 tbs cream

Peas

Parmesan to serve

Salt & pepper

Optional:

1 tbs gravy granules to thicken the sauce

Pasta water to dilute the sauce

Serves: 6

Start by cooking your sausages. You can chop them into disks before or after you cook them, it's usually easier to do it after. Then once the sausages have been chopped, put them back in the pan with a bit of oil. Cook your pasta and defrost your peas, and add the chili, garlic powder and all of the herbs to the sausages and stir. Then add you vodka and let it reduce for about a minute before adding the passata. If you feel the sauce is too thick add some pasta water and if it's too thin add some gravy granules (it also adds some flavour!). Make sure you keep tasting the sauce and seasoning it with salt and pepper to your taste. Then drain your pasta and stir in the cream and peas. Serve with some parmesan and enjoy!