Thursday: Finally

I've been planning for weeks to make something using these sausages:

and the can of crushed tomatoes I've had in a gladware thing in my freezer for a month or two. The story behind them:

1. The WF people had sample day with the sausages, and convinced me to get a package.
2. I opened what I thought was a can of whole tomatoes, only to find they were crushed.  I didn't want them, so I froze them until some future date where I would be less picky about the shape of my tomatoes.

I went with just a quick simple sauce: three cloves garlic, a biggish shallot, both chopped relatively finely, and then fried in a chunk of butter.  Once they were toasting and fragrant, add in the tomatoes, some salt and pepper, and a chiffonade of basil.  Let cook for an hour or so, adding some tomato paste and a pinch of brown sugar to correct the acid level.  Blitz it with the stick blender to smooth it all out. The sausages (as is barely visible in the official picture above) come fully cooked, so this was the point where I slipped them in to warm as the sauce simmered away.  Add some penne, and:

Then add some parmesan and hunk of leftover baguette that I totally should have toasted a bit:

Very good, although I thought that the spiciness of the sausage would mingle into the sauce.  It probably would have if I'd cooked it longer, but then it wouldn't really be a quick sauce (not that it was as quick as I would have wanted).  I think maybe I'd add a dash of red pepper flakes if I do this again.  Maybe a different spice.  The sauce has a good tomato flavor, but it kind of needs something extra to perk it up, I think.