Recipe: Orecchiette with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes

Italian gigli pasta, not orecchiette

This past weekend, we cooked up a storm!  Last night, we tried out the Orecchiette with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes recipe from Food and Wine Magazine's Nov 2011 issue (p.140).  From looking at the photo, I obviously didn't use orecchiette (small ear-shaped pasta) but instead used gigli (lily-shaped) pasta.  Our local Kroger only had some type of extra-fiber Barilla brand orecchiette, and I didn't want to try their enhanced fiber pasta.

The dish turned out great!

Here are a few tips:

• I added double the amount of red pepper for a nice kick.
• Instead of aged provolone, we did a mix of mozzarella and gruyere, and I used about 6 -8 oz of cheese altogether.
• Next time, we'll use a pint and a half to maybe even 2 pints of cherry tomatoes to produce a little more sauce.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/orecchiette-with-sausage-and-cherry-tomatoes

As a side note, here is a fun primer on pasta shapes at The Cook's Thesaurus.