Red Sauce with Chicken Sausage Recipe
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 4 chicken sausage links, casings removed and broken into 1″ chunks
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
- Salt
In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over a medium flame and add the broken up chicken sausage. A note on removing casings: This process is much, much easier if the sausage is slightly frozen; use a small sharp knife to cut along the length of the casing and peel it away.
While the sausage is browning, slice the garlic and open the can of tomatoes. Dump the tomatoes into a mixing bowl and, using your hands, crush them. You could certainly buy a can of crushed tomatoes, but smooshing the whole ones up yourself adds a rustic charm to the sauce and also is just kinda fun. Your choice!
Once the sausage has browned, break it up a bit using a pair of tongs or a spatula. Then add the garlic, allow to cook for about 30 seconds, stirring frequently, until just fragrant before dumping in the tomatoes. Fill the empty tomato can up halfway with water, and add that along with a pinch of salt. You won’t need additional seasonings because the sausage itself is seasoned. Give it a good stir, stick a lid on the whole shebang, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes up to 2 hours. Remove from heat and cool.
***A note on consistency: For use in lasagna, I prefer a more watery red sauce to a thicker one. If you want to use this recipe to make ragu to be served over boiled pasta, remove the lid after 30 minutes of cooking and allow to simmer and thicken for another 30-90 minutes.***
Lastly, assembling your lasagna (and eating it!) …
