Originally published on October 4, 2014
There are no shortages of food ideas in a restaurant kitchen. From finding different ingredients in the walk-in, to discussing ideas with the chef, to learning different ways to plate and present food to make sure it looks its best, these are the most obvious places in which you’ll find new ideas. But there are other, lesser-known areas around the restaurant to get even more food ideas, such as the server that comes in for lunch with a specific, not-on-the-menu item and asks if you can prepare it. That’s what happened here. When finished, it looked so good I had to come home and see if I could recreate it. I didn’t do such a bad job, if I may say. The only difference between this dish and the one I made that afternoon was the server asked for shrimp instead of sausage. While I can cook shrimp, I certainly can’t eat it.
Ingredients:
1/2 package dried linguine
3 cups spaghetti sauce
2 cups Alfredo sauce
4 hot Italian sausage
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 – 3 tablespoons Srirarcha
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fresh basil
Salt
Directions:
1.) Combine the spaghetti sauce, Alfredo sauce, and Srirarcha sauce into a large saucepan. Stir to combine, set over medium heat and warm through. Taste along the way and adjust seasoning if necessary.
2.) While the sauce is warming through, fill a medium-sized saucepan with water and bring to a boil. When boiling gently drop in the Italian sausages and lower heat to a simmer. Cook sausages in the water for about 20 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes, but cool enough so that you can handle them. When cooled, thinly slice them on a diagonal.
3.) Bring another large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. When rapidly boiling, drop linguine in, stir, and cook for about 8 minutes, until it’s just al dente and has a bit of bite left to it.
4.) Heat the olive oil in a skillet set over medium-high heat. When hot, add the sliced sausage and stir to coat the sausage in the oil. Cook for 4 or 5 minutes, until the sausage is carmalized and nice and crispy along the edges. Then lower heat and add the rose sauce that has been warming. When linguini is finished cooking, use tongs or a pasta ladle to remove it from the water and add it directly to the pan holding the sauce and sausage. Stir to thoroughly coat the pasta in the sauce.
5.) Add the Parmesan cheese to the pasta and stir again to coat. Taste, and adjust seasoning if necessary.
6.) Lay the basil leaves flat on a cutting board and roll up into a cigar. Slice into thin strips to chiffonade the basil, cutting them into ribbons. Plate pasta onto individual plates and garnish each with the chiffonade of basil.
7.) Serve and enjoy!