Recipes

Saffron Penne With Sausage and Arugula

Thanks to its luxurious ingredients, this Sicilian-inspired pasta is fancy and decadent enough for special occasions, but is simple enough to be thrown together quickly. Rather than an elaborate sauce, the pasta is dressed with cream flavored by all of the dishes' components. This makes for a rich-tasting effect that feels far lighter than a traditional cream sauce. It's worth noting that this is one of the few recipes in which I advocate not toasting the pine nuts, because it is my experience that the toasted flavor doesn't complement the Saffron and actually competes with it. You can use any shape of pasta, of course, but I find that penne rigate - the penne with the little ridges - holds the perfect amount of sauce. Each element in this pasta represents one of the tastes detectable by your palate, so the result is a beautifully balanced, crave-worthy dish.