Farfalle (bow tie) ai tre gusti Pasta with onion and vegan 'sausage'

I am anxious to purchase and have more organic Conchiglie (seashell) pasta that I first made in mid-September from this fabulous company in Marche, Italia, or other varieties of their pasta. Surprisingly, as I mentioned last Friday, the farfalle I brought back from Italia is decent but not noteworthy, and today I used up what I had left (though I do have another bag of this type of pasta, but made with chocolate and wheat!).

Our first host in Italia, a kind man named Ambrogio, illustrated a way of integrating onion into sauces that I hadn't tried. He takes a small pan, puts oil in it, and heats up onion, cooking it, covered, over low heat for sometime (maybe 15-20 minutes), till the onion is nicely softened. I did something like this, but using shallots widely sliced. I served the pasta simply with the softened onion and oil, topped with a little Parma! vegan "parmesan cheese", and next to grilled apple-sage artisanal vegan Field Roast Grain Meat Company sausage. It was a reasonable dinner.

Yesterday I taught in Carrboro (west of where we live) and my wife gave a sitar performance in Raleigh (east; it was too bad that it was coincident, precluding my enjoying her playing!), so we met somewhere in the middle to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Tower South Indian Restaurant in Morrisville. After appetizers, my wife had a rice dish and I had spring masala dosa; both were leftover, and I will probably heat them and serve them with a side dish in the coming days, unless we enjoy them as mid-day snacks.

By the way, Thanksgiving reservations are over 300 now; I am expecting 400-425. Check out the map showing where folks are coming from!