This story starts, as so many of my food stories do, with my first trip to Italy when I was in my 20s. My entire trip was like one big culinary epiphany, and when I got home I decided I wanted to be a cook. No more mixes, cans or jars. I was going to cook everything from scratch, like the archetypal Italian grandmother.

I threw myself into the endeavor. I bought some tomato and herb plants. I bought a cappuccino maker. I bought several very fancy-looking Italian cookbooks with ingredient lists a mile long. I bought cool retro Italian café posters to hang on my kitchen walls.

Then reality set in. Purchasing things doesn't make you a good cook. Time and patience and experience is the key, and that's something Italian grandmothers have in spades. Impatient twenty-somethings working 50-plus hours a week, not so much. Luckily, I struck gold with my next cookbook purchase. "Quick From Scratch Italian" from the publishers of Food & Wine magazine let me feel like I was cooking from scratch (it's in the title!) while still getting dinner done in under an hour.

Now well into my 30s I'm a little more patient, and I have the experience and skills to tackle more complicated and time-consuming recipes. But I still turn to my well-worn copy of "Quick From Scratch Italian" for busy weekday meals. Rigatoni with sausage and tomato cream sauce is a favorite recipe for those nights when I don't have the time to let a bolognese or marinara sauce simmer. It's nearly as easy as opening a jar of Ragu, but much more satisfying.

The recipe calls for serving the dish with a Chianti Classico Riserva and recommends looking for a wine with a few years of age, as it will be mellower and will complement the sauce well. I usually serve it with grilled asparagus, sauteed broccolini, or a simple tossed salad.

Rigatoni with sausage and tomato cream sauce
 
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 pounds mild or hot Italian sausage, casings removed
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree (from 15-ounce can)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 cup cream
1 pound rigatoni
grated Parmesan, for serving

Directions
1. In a large frying pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up the meat with a fork, until it is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.  With a slotted spoon, remove the sausage from the pan. Discard all but 1 tablespoon fat.
 
2. Reduce the heat to moderately low. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the wine and cook until it almost evaporates, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the sausage, tomatoes and salt. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.  Add the pepper, parsley, and cream.
 
3. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the rigatoni until just done, about 13-14 minutes. Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce.  Serve with grated Parmesan.

Serves 4.

Jessica Webster leads the Food & Drink section for the AnnArbor.com community team. You can reach her at JessicaWebster@AnnArbor.com.