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Simple Italian Sausage Spaghetti Dinner

A spaghetti dish with Italian sausage, tomatoes, wine, and Parmesan cheese.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Simple Italian Sausage Spaghetti Dinner

Serves 4
Total1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.

  2. Heat oil in a 4½‑quart saucepan or Dutch oven over medium‑high heat.

  3. Peel and finely chop onion, adding to pan as you chop.

Brown the sausage

  1. Remove casings from sausage, if necessary, and crumble sausage into the pan. Stir and cook, breaking up the sausage, until the sausage is cooked through and the onion is tender, about 5 minutes.

  2. Add wine to pan and stir to loosen any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.

Make the sauce

  1. Add canned tomatoes and their juice, tomato paste, garlic, sugar and Italian seasoning.

  2. Stir to combine, then reduce heat to medium‑low.

  3. Stir in Parmesan cheese, and cook until pasta is ready.

Serve

  1. Serve the sauce with the cooked pasta.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

615Calories
40 gProtein
35 gFat
30 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Garlic1 clove (3g)4

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. White wine + parmesan cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Italian sausage
Renders fat and browns to build the savory base of the sauce.
Red or dry white wine
Lifts browned bits from the pan and adds acidity and depth to the sauce.
Diced tomatoes
Provide the main liquid, body and acidity of the sauce.
Tomato paste
Thickens the sauce and concentrates its savory, tomato flavor.
Onion
Softens and turns sweet as it cooks, adding aroma to the base.

The step that matters

Cook the sausage until cooked through and well browned. Browning the sausage creates flavorful caramelized compounds in the fat and pan, while cooking it fully ensures it is safe to eat. Breaking it up gives the sauce an even texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, white wine, tomato, garlic, sugar, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Broccolifits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, white wine, tomato, garlic, sugar, parmesan cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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