I Smell Like Olive Oil: An Italian’s Adventure in Italian Cooking.

For my “from home” cooking project I decided to cook my favorite meal that is original to my family; Rigatoni with Mild Italian Sausage. My dad first started cooking this meal when we were young, first with meatballs before the Italian sausage. I don’t really remember the quality of the meal when it was first made by my dad but I definitely will not forget how it tastes now.
Three weeks after arriving at SU I was severely missing home, and since I also needed the recipe for class, I decided to call my dad. It was the first conversation we had since I got to SU and we had a very heart-felt conversation that ended with me forgetting to ask about the recipe. Nice Elise. I decided it was ok though after my dad sent me an email with the recipe since it would have been too much to copy over the phone.
In the words of my dad, the recipe is as follows;
> 1 package of 5 mild Italian sausage links > 1 box of rigatoni (any brand will do) > 1 jar of Ragu Old World Traditional tomato sauce
> olive oil (lots and lots of olive oil!)> Italian seasoning mix > garlic powder > salt
>grated Parmesan cheese Directions:
“Preheat oven to 350. In a glass baking dish spread about 2 tablespoons of oil. Place sausages in the dish, cover with tin foil and place in oven. Heat sausage for 40 minutes turning them once after the first 20 minutes.

SAUCE: Open the jar of tomato sauce and place in a large sauce pan. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, Italian spice mix and garlic powder to the sauce. Simmer at low heat. When sausage is ready, cut sausage links in half and add to the tomato sauce. Cook sauce on low heat until the pasta is finished stirring periodically.

PASTA: In a large pot hopefully with a draining pan, add water and about 4 tablespoons of salt and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Heat on high heat until water boils. Do not reduce heat when water boils. Add rigatoni and immediately stir so pasta doesn't stick together. Cook for 12-14 minutes or until pasta plumps up and floats to the top.
In a large pasta bowl place about 3/4 of tomato sauce in the pasta mixing bowl but don't add the sausage yet. Use the rest of the sauce for the side to add if needed. Mix the well drained pasta into the sauce and mix well making sure the pasta is well coated in sauce and not stuck together. Add the sausage on top of pasta & sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (optional). And there it is. Bon appetite!!”
I followed the recipe down to the last word (I did have a Bon Appetite) and had a successful and messy experience making my first meal of Rigatoni and Italian Sausage. In my experience, the most important factor in Italian cooking would have to be olive oil. There can never be enough olive oil especially in this recipe, which is why you could imagine why I would have smelled like olive oil. Olive oil adds flavor as well as lubricant to the pasta so it won’t stick. So, whenever any of you decide to cook Italian meals, DON’T FORGET TO USE THE OLIVE OIL!