Italian Sausage Ragu

Tuesday night's entree was pasta and salad. While the penne pasta was cooking, a ragu was started by browning some Italian sausage meat for a few minutes before adding some diced yellow bell pepper and diced onion. All was allowed to book for another 5 minutes before some tomato paste and garlic joined the pan. The pan was deglazed with white wine and allowed to cook down. Diced canned tomatoes went in along with some crushed red pepper flakes. The ragu was allowed to simmer for another 5 minutes or so until thickened. The thickened ragu was served over the penne pasta and garnished with Parmesan cheese.

The side dish was a salad with a tomato vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was made by whisking together diced fresh tomato, red wine vinegar, olive oil, minced shallots, minced parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. This was served over some baby romaine salad greens.