Pasta with White Sausage Sauce

Another simple, tasty, quick recipe from How to Cook Everything. The original recipe doesn't call for onions and bell peppers. I left those out until I'd served up the kids' portions. My kids, by the way, thoroughly enjoyed this dish! I think some fresh basil would also be a good addition to this.

• salt
• 2 T. butter
• 8 oz. sweet or hot Italian sausage, removed from casings
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound ziti or other cut pasta
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
  
• 1-2 onions, sliced, optional
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced, optional

1. Cook pasta according to package directions; make sure it's not overcooked. Reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water when draining it.
2. Put butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. As it melts, crumble the sausage into it, making the bits quite small, 1/2 inch or less. Add 1/4 cup water and adjust the heat so that the mixture bubbles gently, adding a little more water if necessary, until the sausage is cooked through and tender, about 5 minutes.
3. If using onions and peppers, removed the sausage to a bowl, using a slotted spoon. Cook peppers and onions in remaining fat until tender. Add entire contents of skillet to bowl with sausage. Stir in pasta, adding past cooking water as necessary to create a "sauce." The sauce won't coat the pasta like marinara, but the noodles should all be seasoned and the meat mixture evenly distributed.
   
4. Grate Parmesan cheese on each serving.

Serves 4