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a bowl of large rigatoni tubes in red tomato sauce with thick browned Italian sausage coins, soft red and yellow pepper strips and thin onion pieces, without cheese or garnish
Andre Lewis

Crockpot Sausage and Peppers Pasta

Keep the sausages whole during the long cook so they give the sauce flavor without breaking into tiny crumbles. Slice them only after they’re tender, and add the peppers with the pasta rather than at the beginning so the strips still have some shape in the finished bowl. Rigatoni needs enough liquid inside its tubes as well as around them, so stir from the bottom during the finishing stage and check a piece from the center before adding the meat back.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 7 hours
Total Time 7 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 6 mild Italian pork sausage links about 1 1/2 lb total
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large yellow onion thinly sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1 can 28 oz tomato passata
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted chicken broth
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/4 tsp fine salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1 large red bell pepper seeded and cut into thin strips
  • 1 large yellow bell pepper seeded and cut into thin strips
  • 12 oz dry rigatoni
  • 1/2 cup extra hot unsalted chicken broth only if pasta needs more liquid

Method
 

  1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown sausage links for 2 minutes per broad side; they will finish cooking in the slow cooker. Transfer to a 6-quart cooker.
  2. Soften onion in the skillet for 5 minutes, add garlic for 1 minute and pour in wine, scraping up the browned bits. Transfer to the cooker with passata, the 1 1/2 cups broth, oregano, salt and pepper.
  3. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours until the sausage centers reach 160°F and the links are tender. Lift sausages to a covered plate and turn the cooker to high.
  4. Stir pepper strips and dry rigatoni into the hot sauce, pressing the pasta into the liquid. Cover and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring after 15 and 25 minutes, until the tubes and peppers are tender.
  5. Add some of the measured extra hot broth only if the pasta is still firm and the sauce is nearly absorbed. Slice cooked sausage into thick coins, fold them into the pasta and cover for 5 minutes until the sausage reaches 165°F.
  6. Switch off and divide among six bowls, distributing the sausage coins and both colors of pepper evenly.