Spicy Italian Sausage Sauce with Penne Pasta

There was lots of excitement the other day when the KitchenAid mincer and sausage making attachment arrived in the mail. After three years in Sudan, we’ve been really enjoying having great pork here. So, off I went to the market to buy the pork. Piers then spent the evening mincing, mixing and stuffing sausages with his new toy. The hound is also very found of the KitchenAid and spends most of her time near it – living in hope. I can only imagine the excitement when sausages were emerging from the machine!

Tala, Piers, and the KitchenAid making pasta

Spicy Italian Sausage Recipe (adapted from Jacob Kenedy’s ‘Bocca Cookbook’)

  • 700g pork shoulder
  • 300g pork belly skin removed
  • 60ml red wine
  • 60g bread crumbs
  • 20g salt
  • 1g dried chili flakes (the Vietnamese ones we made are very hot!)
  • 2g whole fennel seeds
We froze (and ate…) some of the sausages and then I decided to use the rest for my mother’s delicious Sicilian sausage recipe. It is very quick and deliciously tasty – better in a way than even a good bolognese… Serves approximately 6 but I always eyeball quantities….

Ingredients:

  • olive oil
  • 1 large red onion – finely minced
  • 5 garlic cloves – finely minced
  • 500 grams spicy sausage meat (meat removed from casings) add dried chili flakes and fennel seeds if using normal sausages (not the recipe above).
  • 2 sprigs rosemary (dried if no fresh), 2 bay leaves
  • 1/2 a nutmeg nut freshly grated
  • 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 3 fresh plum tomatoes (skins removed) or 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
  • 1 large glass of red wine
  • 100 grams parmesan
  • 100 ml creme fraiche (very important to temper the spice and gives a lovely tang unlike cream)
  • Penne pasta
  1. Fry onion, then garlic, then add sausage meat – brown
  2. Then add rosemary, bay, chili, fennel seed, and nutmeg
  3. Add wine and cook till alcohol burns off
  4. Add tomatoes and then leave to simmer for 20-30mins
  5. Season with salt and pepper (adjust spices if need be)
  6. Stir in cream and parmesan
  7. Serve with penne and basil and parmesan on top

Breaking up, then browning the sausage meat. One could also set aside two sausages with skins still on, brown separately in a pan and then slice up and add in at the end to add a bit more texture.

Penne with spicy sausage sauce (just missing a little bit of basil…)

Category : Recipes, Tala
Tags : , , , , , , ,