Eat

Ina Garten’s One-Pot Rigatoni Is the Perfect Recipe for Lazy Weeknights

published Feb 23, 2023
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
pasta in pot
Credit: Arlyn Osborne

You really can’t go wrong with an Ina Garten recipe. Each one I’ve tried is a perfect, balanced success. They deliver on flavor and fragrance, and serve up a sense of satisfaction that makes me feel genuinely good about myself. I revisit a number of her recipes, but my winter love affair is reserved for none other than her rigatoni with sausage and fennel.

If you don’t count the pot used to boil the noodles (I don’t), this is a one-pot meal (aka my weeknight gospel). It’s straightforward and speedy, and calls for basic ingredients. The seasonal fennel is sweet and mild, the crumbled sausage is rich and savory, and because there’s wine involved, it somehow makes me feel like I tried a little more than I actually did. It’s hearty and comforting, warms me up on chilly winter nights, and is an absolute gift for nights I don’t feel like cooking.

The sauce, creamy with a soft sweetness and subtle heat, gets trapped inside the hollow tubes of rigatoni and clings to its outer ridges, making every forkful a fulfilling and flawless bite. The dish is neither too sausage-y nor too fennel-y (even if you’re not an avid fennel follower like me). In fact, all the ingredient proportions and timings are spot-on, with everything exactly as it should be.

Credit: Arlyn Osborne

How to Make Ina Garten’s Rigatoni with Sausage and Fennel

You’ll start by sautéing diced onion and fennel in olive oil until soft and tender. After this, sweet Italian sausage is added to the pot and cooked and crumbled until browned. Ina calls for links with the casings removed, but I usually cheat and just buy it already ground up. Once the sausage is browned, the garlic, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper are stirred in. At this point, things are beginning to smell pretty fantastic and it’s only going to get better.

Next up, the white wine is added, which should be dry and unsweet (Pinot Grigio is typically my choice). Once this comes to a boil, you’ll pour in the heavy cream, half-and-half, and tomato paste, bring it back to a boil, then drop it down to a steady simmer. The sauce will look really liquidy, but don’t stress — it will cook down and thicken up perfectly.

Credit: Arlyn Osborne

While the sauce does its thing, you’ll boil the rigatoni in salted water according to the box instructions. I have strong feelings about pasta being al dente, so I always set a timer and check periodically to make sure I catch it at the right time. You can drain the noodles with a colander, but if you’d rather skip dirtying another dish (always my preferred option), feel free to use a spider or grab a lid and pour out the pasta water. Out of habit, I always reserve a little pasta water in case I want to thin out the consistency later. You’ll add the noodles to the sauce, mix it up, and allow the noodles to soak up the flavorful sauce.

After this, turn off the heat and stir in some Parmesan and fresh parsley, then plop the giant pot of pasta right onto the table, along with more Parmesan and a “help yourself!” attitude.

This post was originally published on Kitchn. Read it there: Ina Garten’s One-Pot Rigatoni Is Perfect for Lazy Weeknights