We all know the easiest pasta dish is just oil, garlic and chilli (hello aglio e olio). The next easiest dish is just to add some bacon to that. But sometimes you need something with just a little more… bangers.
Ingredients
- 4 x Italian style pork and fennel sausages, with their cases removed
- 2 x garlic cloves, sliced
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- pinch (or more) chilli flakes
- 60ml dry white wine
- 30g butter
- 2 bunches broccolini, chopped into thirds (or bunches asparagus, ditto)
- 400g orecchiette (or other chunky pasta)
- olive oil, salt, pepper, grated parmesan
Method
Heat about two tablespoons of olive oil in a large fry pan, and cook the garlic and fennel seeds for a couple of minutes.
Add the meat from the sausages and break it up into small chunks as you cook it over a medium heat. Add salt, pepper and chilli flakes to taste as you do this.
After about 8-10 minutes the sausage meat should be cooked, so now pour in the wine and scrape up all the yummy caramelised bits from the bottom of the pan as it boils a little. Then stir through the butter.
While this is all going on, cook your pasta as per packet instructions, adding the broccolini (or asparagus) to the boiling water for the last 2 minutes of cooking time.
Drain the pasta and broccolini, trying to remember to keep a little of the pasta water. Then toss all of this together — the pasta, greens and delicious sausage mix.
Serve in bowls with a generous grating of parmesan and enjoy!
Serves four. Keeps your mother happy because greens.