I tried Ina Garten's one-pot pasta dish and now I know why it's one of her go-to dinners

Garten inspired me to become better in the kitchen when the pandemic hit as she shared easy recipes almost daily on her Instagram page.

The lockdowns eased, but I was still hooked on the "Barefoot Contessa" cookbooks. I've now made so many of Garten's pasta dishes that I even have an ultimate ranking (which you can find here).

One "Barefoot Contessa" pasta that I've always wanted to try is her rigatoni with sausage and fennel. Trent Pheifer, a fellow Garten superfan, has made all 1,272 of her recipes — and he told me that the rigatoni was still his favorite.

"My go-to that I tell everyone and scream from the rooftops is her rigatoni with sausage and fennel," he said. "It's such a crowd-pleaser, it's always a hit."

The dish appears in Garten's 2016 cookbook, "Cooking for Jeffrey," which features recipes that she loves making for her husband of 53 years.

Garten also demonstrated how to make the dish on a 2017 episode of "Barefoot Contessa," telling viewers: "You can make the whole thing in one big pot, bring it to the table, and everyone loves it."

I'm a huge fan of easy one-pot dinners, and I love mixing sausage with pasta. So, obviously, I had to try it.

To make Garten's pasta for six, you'll need:

• 1 pound rigatoni pasta
• 1 ¼ pound sweet Italian sausages (casings removed)
• 3 cups chopped fennel
• 1 cup freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese
• 1 ½ cups yellow onion (chopped)
• ½ cup parsley leaves (chopped)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ⅔ cup half-and-half
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
• ½ cup whole fennel seeds (crushed)
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

I began by chopping my onions and garlic.

Per Garten's advice, I used a mortar and pestle to get them just right.

I'm always the first to admit my cooking errors and, unfortunately reader, one happened during prep.

Garten's recipe states that one large fennel bulb should be enough to make three cups of chopped fennel. My fennel bulb was not nearly big enough, only giving me about half that amount. So when you make this at home, I recommend buying at least two fennel bulbs so you don't run into the same problem — and make sure they're sizable!

I drizzled some olive oil into my pot and placed it over medium heat before throwing in the veggies.

I sautéed the fennel and onions for about six minutes, stirring occasionally until they became tender.

Before adding the sausages to my sauce, I had to remove their casings.

I actually learned a great tip on how to do this when I first made Gordon Ramsay's 15-minute pasta with sausage bolognese. Ramsay recommends lightly slicing each sausage down the middle to help remove the skin, which makes the process super easy.

I crumbled the sausage with a spatula and let it cook for around seven minutes, until the meat became nicely browned.

I threw in the garlic, crushed fennel seeds, and red pepper flakes, along with two teaspoons of salt and one teaspoon of black pepper — letting everything cook together for another minute.

Since Garten's recipe recommends a dry white wine, I opted for a Pinot Grigio.

This is also when I added the tomato paste.

Per Garten's instructions, I let my sauce simmer for 20 minutes until it had thickened.

I brought a large pot of water to a boil and added two tablespoons of salt.

Dinner was almost served!

I stirred everything together and let my rigatoni cook over low heat for five minutes, allowing the pasta to absorb the sauce.

"A little fresh green in there always helps," Garten said while cooking this dish on "Barefoot Contessa."

What Garten loves about her rigatoni with sausage and fennel is that it's a one-pot dinner.

"I love to take this big pot and just put it on the table and let everybody help themselves," she said in the episode.

I loved the color of Garten's rigatoni pasta. It had a pinkish tint that reminded me a bit of her delicious five-cheese penne, which I'm a huge fan of.

The bright-green parsley added a nice extra pop of color to the noodles, and everyone looked excited as I brought the big pot over to the dinner table — just like Garten had promised.

The Parmesan cheese adds so much richness to the pasta that my boyfriend compared it to Garten's mac and cheese (another favorite). Rigatoni is the perfect noodle for capturing all that meat and sauce, and I loved how the sweetness of the sausage balanced the saltiness of the Parmesan.

I do think the pasta could be just a tad too rich for some, especially as we head into the hot summer months. I think if I'd had the correct amount of fennel, it would've helped cut through the cheesiness. I'd also recommend using a quarter cup of Parmesan first and tasting the sauce before adding more.

But, overall, this pasta has some great flavors. And if you love cheese, it's going to make a great one-pot dinner.