Pasta With White Sausage Sauce

Pasta and sausage are a combination that usually suggests a dense, heavy tomato sauce. But it can also mean the very opposite. Sausage, used in small amounts, can contribute to a relatively light, almost delicate pasta sauce. In fact, sausage is a gift to the minimalist cook: it comes already seasoned, and its seasoning can be used to flavor whatever goes with it. The technique is simple. It's easiest to start with bulk sausage, or patties, because then there's no need to remove the meat from a casing. (Though that is easy to do: Just slit the casing with a sharp knife and peel it off.) You crumble the sausage into a little melted butter, which adds smoothness to the final sauce (omit it if you prefer), add water or other liquid and finish with grated Parmesan.