Pasta with Sausage, Mushroom and Spinach sauce

Trader Joe's fresh chicken sausage works particularly well for this, and makes for a slightly lighter sauce than the traditional pork stuff, good though that is.

• 1 2-oz package dried Porcini or mixed mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp. + 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2-3 Italian sausage links, casings removed, crumbled
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 tsp. fennel seed
• 1/3 cup white wine with good acid
  
• 1 28-oz. can whole tomatoes, pureed
• 2 Tbsp. each fresh basil and fresh parsley, chopped
• Dash of dried thyme (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Dash of cayenne
• 1 6-oz. package pre-washed baby spinach leaves

1. Place dried mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Cover the bowl and let stand about 20 min. Drain in a strainer and rinse well with cold water. If there are any large pieces, cut them into halves or thirds. Set aside.
2. Over medium heat, heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a saute pan large enough to accomodate the spinach leaves later in addition to all other ingredients. Add sausage, breaking up with a wooden spoon. Saute, stirring frequently, until mostly cooked through and starting to brown. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Heat remaining 3 Tbsp. olive oil in the same pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute, stirring occasionally until it starts to brown.
4. Add mushrooms and saute, stirring frequently, for 2-3 min.
5. Add garlic and fennel seed and saute until garlic starts to change color.
6. Add wine, turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil, scraping up bits from the bottom of the pan. Allow the wine to bubble until it's reduced by about half.
7. Add tomatoes, basil, parsley and thyme, if using.
8. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add cayenne.
9. Return sausage and its accumulated drippings to pan, stir to combine thoroughly and bring to a boil.
10. Turn the heat down as low as it'll go, cover the pan and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 min., until the oil begins to separate from the tomatoes.
11. Turn the heat up slightly, add the spinach and cover again, squashing the spinach into the sauce. Cook 3-4 min. until spinach begins to wilt. Stir it into the sauce until the rest wilts. Adjust seasonings.

Serve over penne, rigatoni or other short, tubular pasta, sprinkled with freshly-grated Parmesan cheese and and julienned fresh basil leaves.

Serves 4-5 as a main course.

Wine: Any Italian red that's not too delicate and has good acid -- decent Chianti, Primitivo, Negro Amaro, etc., though in a pinch, you can just drink up the leftover white that you didn't use in the sauce.