Rigatoni Al Forno

How do you choose which sausages to buy? I have recently been ordering 'Debbie and Andrew's, Harrogate', sausages from tesco. They have attractive packaging with a photo of two pairs of wellies. They claim to be 97% pork shoulder, the cut you would serve for your Sunday Lunch. In my head I am envisaging a country kitchen churning out these sausages as part of a family business. For some reason the last time we had them, Steve had a look on google street view and found out where they are made. A huge factory on a grotty industrial estate, a far cry from what I had imagined, and nowhere near Harrogate. In reality if they are supplying tesco and probably other supermarkets they are not going to be a small business. They are tasty sausages, probably as good as they get buying from a supermarket, but all this business recently about what really goes into our food does get you thinking. Friends of ours reared a pig last summer for the pork, they were surprised at how much it cost to produce sausages from the meat. I guess we don't pay a lot for supermarket sausages and that probably reflects what the manufacturers put into them. 
After all of that I did enjoy this meal tonight. I flicked through some old Olive Magazines for some inspiration, it was lovely to see James tucking in with great enthusiasm. Rachel wanted to eat it even though she'd been quite unwell today. I have saved a portion for her tomorrow. 

Ingredients
Serves 4
Rigatoni 300g
1 ball of Mozzarella, diced
2 tbsp of grated parmesan
Pasta Sauce;
Oil
6 Pork and herb sausages, skinned
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp of fennel seeds, crushed
chopped rosemary leaves to make 2 tsp
2 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes

Method
To make the sauce heat 1 tbsp of oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up as it browns, so you have quite small pieces. Add the garlic, fennel and rosemary and cook for a couple of minutes. 
Add the tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes until thickened. Cook the pasta but keep an eye on it, and stop cooking when it is a couple of minutes away from being done -you will be cooking it more in the oven, so you want it to still have a bit of a bite. Mix the pasta with the sauce and tip into the baking dish. Scatter over the mozzarella and parmesan and bake for 20 to 30 mintues until bubbling and golden. Serve with salad if you like.

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