I started my weekly market-fresh meal by pre-cooking an Italian Sausage from Deck Family Farm – for a vegan meal, you could omit the sausage, and throw in some tempeh from Squirrel and Crow Foods instead – in an inch of water in a large skillet for about five minutes, flipping it midway through. I then removed the sausage, poured off the liquid into a bowl, and set both aside.
I melted a tablespoon of butter in the skillet over medium heat, while I diced a quarter of an onion from Denison Farms – about half a cup of cut onion. I tossed the onion into the pan, and then finely chopped five leaves of sage and two stalks of rosemary from Cerigioli Gardens and added it to the mix. Next in was a dash of salt, and three chopped up cloves of garlic from Fiddlehead Farm.
That cooked for about five minutes, as I roughly chopped a tomato from Crooked Furrow Farm and a quarter of a yellow bell pepper from Simplicity Gardens, pausing to stir frequently. I added the tomato and pepper and let it cook for a couple minutes more, while I sliced up the partially-cooked sausage, which was, by then, cool enough to handle, and firm enough to slice easily.
I returned the sausage to the pan with the veggies, and topped it off with the reserved liquid and a sprinkle of fresh-ground pepper.
I turned up the heat to bring the liquid to a boil, and then back down to simmer. I let it simmer for about half an hour, cooking a batch of pasta in the meantime. By the time the pasta was ready, the sauce had reduced, and I poured it over the noodles, and ate it!