Ziti With Sausage, Onions And Fennel

• For the sauce:
• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage (without fennel seeds)
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium onions, cut in half-moon slices (2 cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried peperoncino (hot red pepper flakes)
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• Boiling water from the pasta cooking pot
• For the pasta and finishing:
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, for the pasta cooking water
• 1 pound ziti
• 1/3 cup finely chopped fennel fronds
• 1 cup freshly Grana Padano

1. Remove the sausage from its casing and break the meat up a bit with your fingers.
2. Trim the fennel bulb. Slice the bulb in half lengthwise, then slice each half in 1/4-inch thick lengthwise slices. You will have about 3 cups of 2-inch long matchsticks of fennel.
3. Pour the olive oil into the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage meat and cook, stirring and breaking it up until it is sizzling and beginning to brown, about 1-2 minutes.
4. Push the sausage a aside and drop the onion slices into a clear part of the pan; saute, stirring, till another 2 minutes will wilted.
5. Clear another space in the pan. Drop in the fennel; let it heat up and wilt for 1 minute or more, then stir it with the sausage and onions.
6. Sprinkle on 1/4 teaspoon salt; drop the peperoncino in a hot spot and toast the flakes for 1/2 minute, then stir them in.
7. Clear a hot spot in the center of the pan, put in the tomato paste, and cook, stirring for a minute or more, until caramelized.
8. Add 3 cups of boiling pasta water from the pot into the skillet, stir and bring the liquid to a boil. Adjust the heat to simmer. Cook ziti till right before al dente.
9. Continue to simmer the sauce until the flavors have developed and the fennel is soft but not mushy, 6 minutes or more. The sauce should not get too thick: stir in another cup or two of boiling pasta water if it reduces rapidly. Drop ziti into the sauce pan.
10. Start tossing pasta and sauce together; ladle in more water if the sauce seems too thick.
11. Continue to cook and toss the ziti in the skillet for 2 minutes, or until they are perfectly al dente and coated with sauce. If the pasta appears dry, ladle in more hot pasta water; if it is soupy, cook rapidly to thicken sauce.

sausage, extra virgin olive oil, onions, salt, peperoncino, tomato paste, boiling water, pasta, kosher salt, fennel fronds

Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/ziti-with-sausage-onions-and-fennel-50062859 (may not work)