Sausages

A cross-reference recipe: it assumes you have already turned to the book's Spaghetti Italian and does nothing but add meat to the sauce. Everything that matters is in the handling of that half cup of sausage.

• "Cooked sausage meat"Most likely bulk sausage, the seasoned forcemeat sold loose or squeezed from its casing, though cooked links skinned and crumbled would answer as well. Either way the recipe implies the meat is cooked before it goes in, not raw meat poached in the sauce. Brown it in a dry pan first, crumbling it fine, then lift it out with a slotted spoon.
• Half a cup is not muchLoose cooked sausage packs to something like 2-3 oz per half cup, which is a flavouring rather than a meat sauce. For a modern main course rather than a light luncheon plate, doubling it is reasonable and will not unbalance a tomato sauce.
• Pour off the fatThe recipe says nothing about draining, and a fatty sausage will break the surface of the sauce into an orange slick, so lift the crumbles out and leave the rendered fat behind.
• When to add itStir the sausage in for the last ten minutes of the sauce's simmering. Longer does nothing for it and dries out the crumbles; shorter and the seasoning never marries with the tomato.
• What kind of sausagePlain pork breakfast sausage is the likeliest intention, rather than Italian sausage with fennel and chilli. Either works, but fennel sausage will change the dish substantially, so choose deliberately.
• YieldThe parent recipe governs the quantity. Assume whatever it feeds; the sausage stretches it slightly rather than serving more people.