My best ever pasta sauce

My twin sister always makes fun of me because I make pasta so much. But with so many different ways to make it, you can never get tired of it.

When I had my first apartment, I think I made pasta at least 4 nights a week! Here are some of my favorites I’ve made: Lasagna for One, Pasta Bake, Very veggie pasta sauce, Pasta with mini meatballs, just to name a few.

I almost always just make my sauce since its so much cheaper than buying jarred sauce. I do like to throw in some veggies into the mix. For this version I threw in 2 Melrose Peppers I bought at the farmers market last weekend.

I haven’t had Melrose Peppers before, they look like this:

I asked the man working the table if they were spicy or not, and he said no, more like a green pepper than a hot pepper. So I bought a small basket.

This version of my pasta sauce

1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 Melrose peppers, seeds removed
1/2 white onion
2 medium fresh tomatoes – threw the whole thing, seeds and all in!
4 cloves of garlic
2 links of mild Italian sausage, casing removed
1 teaspoon fennel, chopped
1-2 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

In a medium skillet, cook the Italian sausage and drain any fat off. Meanwhile, in a blender, add the crushed tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, melrose peppers, onion and garlic and puree until smooth. Add that to the cooked Italian sausage, and then add the rest of the spices. Cook for about 20 minutes. Then I added the fresh parmesan cheese and let that melt into the sauce.

I also used a different shape pasta which was Campanelle or little bell shaped pasta.

I have to say it was REALLY hard to just have one serving, but I was happy I did, since I had leftovers to take to work with me the next day.

How often do you cook pasta??

Also, have you tried Melrose Peppers before??