Behold My Wife’s Favorite Pasta Dish Of All Time!

I know, not blown away by the photo, are you? That’s OK, I wasn’t either – but when Alex took a bite, her face lit up and she said these words:

“This is the best pasta dish you’ve ever made!”

Why I think she felt that way is all part of this story: it began when I saw this recipe in The Washington Post for a “one post fennel sausage pasta” dish! I’ve made one pot dishes before and will share those recipes later, but first, let’s cook this one and see where the breakthrough happened!

I always take a shot of all of the ingredients before I cook, but this one turns out to be a bit wrong, as I ultimately left the black olives out!

Here’s what you need to work with:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound bulk hot or sweet Italian sausage – I used sweet

2 medium fennel bulb (8 ounces), trimmed and cut into medium dice

4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped – I used ten!

1 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste

1 chicken or vegetable bouillon cube (optional)

Those are the ingredients you will need first. Here’s that first part of the process:

After stirring the bouillon cube in, I let it cook for ten minutes or so, then it was time to add the next ingredients:

3 tablespoons tomato paste

4 cups water or chicken stock

1 pound dried fusilli pasta

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes

Add the tomato paste and stir it in to cook, stirring until the paste darkens slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer, then add in the pasta, diced tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, according to the box instructions for al dente, about 10 minutes.

Here is the video:

As the pasta cooks, taste the sauce and season with salt to taste.

Turn off the heat and cover the pot (still on the burner) for 5 minutes to help the pasta absorb the flavorful liquid.

Next I added some half and half cream to the dish…but only mine, as Alex isn’t a fan:

The last touch is to add some diced avocado, and the grated parmesan cheese…I love how quickly it melted into the dish.

That’s it! The pasta has cooked while absorbing the chicken stock and tomato flavor, and it’s a rich and creamy dish!

The fennel flavor is also infused in the pasta, which is no longer a bland noodle holding the sauce but a fully infused part of the dish…it was really delicious and so easy to make!

I have cooked “one pot” meals before, like this one:

This was a really fun dish to make – Orzo with Leeks and Fennel! Check out the “one pot” recipe here:

Crispy Chicken and Pasta was also a “one pot wonder” and was really fun to make – and also tasted great! See the recipe I cooked from Chef Ottolenghi here:

I have cooked with Ottolenghi before, and this recipe was almost a “one pot wonder”as well:

This Orzo dish with Prawns was delicious as well…here is the recipe:

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