Sausage and Eggplant Bucatini with Fennel Tomato Sauce

Italian-American comfort food, without any of the shortcuts or questionable ingredients that plague a lot of pastas. Delicious, easy, and weeknight-friendly.

Course Main Dishes, Pasta & Noodles

Cuisine American, European, Italian, North American

Keyword healthy, made from scratch, pasta sauce with eggplant, pasta with sausage and eggplant, tomato sauce with sausage and vegetables

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 30

Total Time 45

Servings people

Calories 717kcal

Ingredients

2 beef sausages (about 200 g)
2 tbsp olive oil (plus a couple of teaspoons to finish the dish)
3 cloves garlic
2 small onions (about 200 g)
1 large Japanese eggplant (about 150 g)
2 cups simple tomato sauce (see note)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning (or a pinch each of basil, rosemary, thyme, and oregano)
1/4 tsp fennel seed or anise seed
400 g bucatini
parmigiano-reggiano cheese to serve
salt to taste, and for the pasta water

Instructions

Fill a cast iron or heavy-bottomed pan with water until the sausages are half-submerged, then heat over medium-high, turning the sausages occasionally, until the water has evaporated. Once the pan is dry, reduce the heat to low and brown the sausages in their own oil (you can poke them with a knife if they given up much fat). Remove the finished sausage rounds and set aside (if they're a tiny bit underdone, don't worry; you're going to cook them again). DO NOT clean the pan - you're going to use all that sausage flavour to cook the veggies.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the bucatini and cook until al dente (usually around 11 minutes, but check the packaging for specific instructions). Drain and set aside, but reserve a little of the water from cooking the pasta.
Once the sausage is cooked and set aside, add oil, garlic and onions to the hot pan and saute over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add eggplant, sliced sausage, and spices and cook for 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Add tomato sauce and cook until thick and reduced; about 10 more minutes. If the sauce starts to look too thick for your liking, or it's caramelizing a bit too fast, add a splash of the water from the pasta. Toss the finished sauce with the bucatini and an extra glug of olive oil, and serve with parmigiano-reggiano cheese.

Notes

Tomato sauce is a very broad category, and one that warrant further consideration. I strongly recommend that you do NOT use one of the jarred brand-name sauces with a distinctive name and a lot of herbs, sugar and salt added. These are intended to be used straight out of the bottle, and they vary wildly in terms of ingredients and nutritional profile. Instead, find a very simple, preferably unsalted (or very low salt) pure tomato sauce with only a few simple ingredients (tomatoes, possibly garlic/onion, and citric acid or lemon juice). If you can't find one that you like or that fits this profile, instead just use pure crushed tomatoes (ideally made from good Italian plum tomatoes). If you go this route, you may find that you want to add a little more seasoning to your sauce.

Nutrition