ModernGear Food: Vail Pasta

Today's recipe comes to you from Mister ModernGearTV - my hubby! It is a pasta dish that his friend made for him and three other guys on their recent ski trip to Vail. He has made it a few times since, and every time it gets better. I followed him around with the camera to catch the action, so I'll try to put together a recipe from what I saw - measurements are approximate. What I can tell you is this made enough for us for dinner, with leftovers for both of us the next day.

INGREDIENTS
spaghetti for two - any pasta would work
three large shallots
three cloves garlic
two hot red peppers
2 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes
approx. 10 mushrooms
one package hot Italian sausage - approx. 5 links (the recipe would work with any type of sausage)
one glass red wine
one jar tomato sauce (any kind will do, even plain and then add in your own spices)
parmesan for the top
olive oil
salt and pepper


DIRECTIONS
Remember, the most important part of cooking is having good help...or if nothing else, moral support.
1. Chop garlic and shallots, hot pepper and sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms. Leave each in their own little piles - garlic and shallots together, red stuff together, mushrooms on their own.

2. Next, get the meat out of the sausage casings (hubby says they are called "hanks"). You can either squeeze and squeeze until the meat oozes out of one end (kind of not-so-appetizing looking but good fun, I can assure you), or slit the length of the sausage and slide the hank off.
3. Heat olive oil in the pan, and when ready slide the shallots and garlic off the board into the warmed oil. Saute until translucent, and smelling delish.
4. Slide the reds off the board - your little pile of sundried tomatoes and hot peppers, that is. Into the frying pan they go.
Saute til they soften a bit, then get ready to...

5. Add the sausage meat. Mr. MGTV (speaking of hunks) says to spoon off small hunks of the sausage into the pan, to form little tiny Italian sausage meatballs, if you will. Season with pepper.
Stir as it is cooking, til the sausage meat is browned nicely on all sides.

6. Add your glass of red wine, if you can bear to part with it. Don't worry about us - there's more where that came from. (Around about now you can put your water for the pasta on to boil.)
7. Invite the mushrooms to join in on the party in the pan.

Cook until the mushrooms start to get soft, then transfer the whole lot to a pot. I don't know why. He said so.

8. Add the tomato sauce (could be from a jar or can and pre-spiced, or homemade).

Stir it up real nice, and let simmer on a medium-low flame.
9. Throw your pasta into the boiling water. We have a little problem in our household with measuring pasta - how much to make? I am going to get Mr. MGTV one of these great products:
Danesco Spaghetti Measure $7.00
Pasta Measure, $.50
Kitrics Pasta Measure $9.10
Spaghetti Measure $6.99

But, for now we're going with a healthy, manly handful!

10. Rest and have some fun while the sauce simmers and the pasta boils. Take a silly picture in a pot:and hug your helper:11. After the requisite pasta cooking time, test to see if it's done. Some people throw a strand of spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks. Mr. MGTV has another technique.
Yep, it's done!

Drain pasta, add a splash of olive oil and plate 'er up. Sprinkle liberally with parmesan and maybe wait a wee bit til it melts. Sooooo good.


Bon Appétit!