A New Pasta Sauce

Tonight, I thought I'd try making a new and slightly different pasta sauce. This sauce was inspired by a "Shepherd's Sauce" recipe in a Lidia Bastianich cookbook. Starting with her recipe, I added my own little twist which I think turned out well.

My Shepherd's Sauce

serves 6-8 

2lb sweet Italian sausage, bulk or removed from casing
1 med. yellow onion, diced
1 6oz. can tomato paste
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1  15oz. package of part skim milk ricotta cheese
2 tsp. dried basil
1 dozen fresh basil leaves, shredded
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups water


---Brown the sausage in a large heavy bottom pot. Drain most of the grease and then add the diced onion. Stir around and allow to cook for a minute. Add the garlic and stir.
--Add the tomato paste and stir well, cooking for 30 seconds or so. Next add the entire package of ricotta cheese and stir well. Everything will look very thick; don't panic, it's supposed to look that way. Now add the water (white wine or chicken broth can be substituted for the water) and stir. Turn the heat down to a simmer.
--Add the dried basil, salt and pepper. Allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes and taste. Adjust seasoning. Five minutes before serving, add the shredded fresh basil.

Serve this sauce over rigatoni and top with some grated Parmesan cheese.