14 ounces rigatoni
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 pound ground veal
3 hot Italian sausages, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon sugar
12 ounces canned plum tomatoes, drained
4 ounces Parmesan, grated
3/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1 sprig thyme
salt
water

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the rigatoni. Return to a boil and cook until al dente.
2. Meanwhile, heat a saucepan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil, garlic and red chili flakes, cooking until fragrant.
3. Stir in the veal and sausage, reduce heat to medium and cook until no longer pink.
4. Add the sugar and tomatoes and break up gently with a fork. Simmer until slightly thickened, then stir in the Parmesan cheese, basil, sage and thyme.
5. Season the sauce with salt to taste. Transfer the rigatoni to the sauce with about a tablespoon of the cooking water and stir to coat. Serve with additional cheese if desired.

Makes 4 servings

My new computer arrived today. Actually, the parts that I planned to make into a new computer arrived. They showed up on the doorstep (don't worry, they weren't just left there, I had to sign for them!) in the early afternoon and I didn't figure out how to properly put it together until around dinner time. Small changes in technology can be awfully confusing if you don't bother learning anything that isn't related to food. So I'm currently working out the bugs. I'm waiting for tech support to issue me my passwords so I can update the site again, since they were all stored on the old computer and I'm certain that they weren't ************* like I remember them.

Since we spent so much time working on this and I was getting stressed out (there's no reason it should take that long to put together a computer and get it functioning) I decided to make some quick comfort food, Rigatoni. When people think of spaghetti they think of meatballs, for macaroni it's cheese. For rigatoni it's the thickest meat sauce you can possibly muster. There's no better pasta than rigatoni for a rich, meaty sauce. I made this sauce with veal because I think there's a certain flavor that veal imparts that gives a meat sauce a certain je ne sais quoi. I think it's the guilt factor, since you're basically eating babies. Shannon does not like the flavor, so I had to eat her portion as well. How unfortunate.

When Shannon's parents were visiting we were watching an episode of the Sopranos. Tony was seeing his shrink and he was discussing relationships and women in a not-so polite way that we've grown to love of the Sopranos. His psychiatrist said, "You don't have to eat every plate of rigatoni, you don't have to !@#$ every woman you meet!" Obviously the writers drew the comparison because rigatoni is as good as sex. Okay, so maybe that's not what they were going for, but it's definitely delicious.