Angel Hair with a Tomato Meat Sauce

I feel like all I ever show you is pasta. You’re welcome?

But this one is different because there’s a major MAJOR James Bond trickster secret I pulled in it.

Well, to be fair, Aaron first pulled this trickster secret on me, causing a no-way-you’re-kidding-smoochy-high-five-flip out, thus propelling my neurotic interests into overdrive, causing me to pull this secret of such titanic magnitude on you all.

But I’m going to tell you now, because I’m lovable like that. <—- gross.

So here we go: there are two kinds of meat in this sauce. Half Italian sausage, for the flavor, and half ground chicken, cutting the fat down.

HA-BIGGID – oh you do this all the time?

Oh.

Well it made me squeal with utter felicity, so there.

Another thing, for this dish, I’d really stick with angel hair pasta. There’s just something so delicate and silky about it in this specific sauce. The sauce with two meats in it. The one for flavor and the one for health. Remember the sauce I was telling you about? Oh, you’d rather talk about something else?

Okay, so we watched Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil this weekend. Have you seen it? O-M-G, hysterical. I feel like this year these are the only types of Halloween movies I can take, with the babies and my hyperactive nerves and all. I mean sure there are wood chippers and chainsaws and murders in it, but not like that. It’s actually fun to watch all the death! And that sounded creepy. You just have to see it. The end.

You know what else you have to see? How delicious two kinds of meat can make a tomato sauce. One for flavor and one for health. And I stand by it.

Did your mouth just fall off your face?

Get in that.

Angel Hair with a Tomato Meat Sauce:

What it took for 4:

* 2 Italian sausage links, casings removed and pulled into chunks
* 1/2 pound ground chicken
* 1 tsp smoked paprika
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 (28 oz) can whole peeled plum tomatoes, crushed with your hands (San Marzano if you can get it!)
* 2 Tbs fresh oregano and thyme (total)
* 1 pinch crushed red pepper
* 1 Tbs. honey
* 1/4 cup whole milk
* coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
* 1/2 pound angel hair pasta, cooked until al dente and drained
* 1 – 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
* 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
* fresh parsley, for garnish

Heat a large skillet over medium-high. Add the Italian sausage and start to brown it in the pan for a couple of minutes, releasing some of the fat. Add the ground chicken and keep browning the meats, another 5 minutes. If you need to add a tsp of oil, do it. Add the smoked paprika and a pinch of salt and pepper, cook another minute.

Add the onion and garlic; sauté until the veggies start to get tender, 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, herbs, crushed red pepper and honey; simmer on medium (partially covered) for about 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Add the milk and simmer another 5. Taste it. Need anything? More heat? More salt? If you want it creamier, a little more milk? Do yo’ thang.

Off the heat, add the cooked pasta, cheese, and a nice drizzle of olive oil. Toss toss toss to combine. Taste it one more time. UGH, I know.

Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with crusty bread which I forgot to photograph because pregnancy.

Eat up!

By the way, there are TWO kinds of meat in this sau- okay.