Paccheri Pasta With Butter Beans

5 from 1 vote

Paccheri pasta with butter beans, Italian sausage, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and parsley in a simple sauce.

Prep Time5

Cook Time25

Total Time30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Cook the paccheri pasta to 'al dente' in salted (2 Tbsp kosher salt per gallon) water. Before draining reserve 2 cups of pasta water. Finely chop a 1/4 cup of fresh parsley. Also, rough chop 4 cloves of garlic and a 1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes.
While pasta is cooking, in a large pan saute the ground sausage in 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Break apart any large pieces with a wooden spoon. When sausage is fully cooked (15-20 minutes), remove from pan and set aside.
In the same pan, add a 1/4 cup of olive oil and saute garlic until golden (about 2 minutes). Add the sun dried tomatoes and chili flakes to the pan and let cook for 1 minute.
Add a 1/2 cup of pasta water and scrape any brown bits off the pan bottom with a wooden spoon. Return the sausage to the pan and add the rinsed butter beans.
Add the paccheri pasta and mix thoroughly to combine. Let the pasta cook for 1 minute to heat through and absorb the sauce. Taste test and adjust salt and/or chili flakes if required. If the pasta is too dry add a couple ounces more of the reserved pasta water.
Remove the pan from the stove, add the parsley and a big drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top. Enjoy!

Feel free to substitute any tubular sized pasta.
No extra salt was added, adjust according to taste.
Chili flakes are optional.
A few ounces of the extra pasta water can be used to thin out the pasta sauce if necessary.