I can’t think of a better way to start my blog than with this traditional meal.  My mother is Italian and her little Italian mother from Torino, Italy taught her how to make this wonderful meal that will satisfy the most hungry crowd.  It is great for a large group because you can put in on a platter and serve it home style.  Mostaccioli  is a type of pasta.  It is about 2 inches long, it is cylindrical and has lines in the pasta with an angle on both ends.  The great thing about this pasta is that the sauce gets in the middle of the pasta so that when you bite down, WOW! a burst of yummy sauce.  If you like wine, a great wine to drink with this type of meal is a red table wine.  I suggest:   Ruffino’s  Aziano Chianti Classico/approx.  $11.00 a bottle.    So here it is:

Serves approx.   8

8-Cups of your favorite meat or marinara sauce (homemade or in a jar)
5-Green bell peppers cleaned, sliced lengthwise into 8 wedges
12- Italian Sausage
1- 16oz box or package of Mostaccioli  (You can cook 1 -1/2 box’s and add some extra pasta if you like it a bit dryer or need to feed more people)
1- Cup  Parmigiano  Reggiano – Finely grated.

Get a large pot, approx.  12 quart pan.  Fill 3/4 with water and add 1/4 cup of salt.   Stir. Turn on medium  heat while preparing other things.

Cook the Italian Sausage on all sides over a medium heat until done. (approx. 25min. all together) Take out of the pan and put on a plate.  Set aside.

Heat up your red sauce to a  full  simmer and then turn down to a  simmer.   Cut sausage in 1/4 inch rounds.  Throw them into the sauce.  Cook  for about 15 minutes on simmer.  Add the bell peppers and cook them so that they are still firm but cooked not limp and overcooked.  Turn off the heat, put a lid on and set aside.

Crank up the heat on the water to a boil,  add pasta, cook to El Dente (flexible but firm) and drain.  Turn off heat.  DO NOT RINSE THE PASTA). Put pasta back into pot with approx. 1/4 olive oil drizzled over the pasta and fold to coat.

Pour the sauce , sausage, peppers into the mostaccioli and fold into the pasta.  Do not stir because you will rip the mostaccioli.  Pour onto a platter, sprinkle parmigiano reggiano on the top.

Serve with a tossed green salad and lots of good bread.   Bon Appetit!

If you want to stretch it into 3 meals, keep it in the fridge and take out the amount you want, just put a little olive oil in a suacepan and add the Mostoccioli.    Turn the heat on low with a lid on it and warm it up or warm in the microwave.   Don’t forget the parmigiano!