Pennette with tomato sauce and mortadella

Pennette pasta with tomato and mortadella  sauce is one of those life-saving recipes you can prepare in no time at all to solve those domestic emergencies that often crop up atfamily dinner times. 

Tomato sauce with mortadella is so easy to make you can use it to serve with pennette pasta when having to improvise a dinner for friends that turn up unexpectedly : it is sure to be a success. 

This sauce is so quick to prepare you could even rustle it up for an office lunch. Pennette pasta with tomato sauce and mortadella is unbelievably good, even when heated up! 

The Recipe:

First of all, peel the shallot and chop it very finely. Chop the mortadella as finely as possible too. Gently fry the shallot in a sufficiently large pan with one spoonful of EVO oil. Then add the chopped mortadella and mix everything for a few minutes to blend the flavours of the ingredients.  At this point, you may add the tinned tomatoes, either whole or cut into fairly large pieces, and let them cook until the tomato has broken up.  

Keep cooking the sauce on a medium heat and, if necessary, add a cup of water. When the sauce starts to reduce, season to taste and add the cream. Mix well and remove from the heat.  

In the meantime, you will have started to cook the pasta which must be strained when still ‘al dente’ firm to the bite. Toss it in the pan with the sauce on a fairly high heat. Garnish with a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley. 

What to drink with pennette pasta served with mortadella and tomato sauce
The traditional pairing for mortadella is with red wines, such as Lambrusco; you could also try serving this dish with Grignolino d'Asti or Bonarda Oltrepò Pavese. Your pennette with tomato and mortadella sauce will also be enhanced by a spumante classic method, enabling you to pass from aperitif to first course without changing wine.