Here is a delicious meat sauce pasta dish that uses both spicy and mild Italian sausages as its main ingredients. The sausage makes for a flavorful sauce and is easy to prepare. The recipe comes from Food & Wine magazine courtesy of restaurateur Andrew Carmellini. In the recipe headnotes, they explain that Mr. Carmellini’s family makes their own soppressata, a hard salami, by grinding their own meat. Italian sausages share many of the same ingredients such as garlic, white wine, fennel and crushed red pepper. To give the fresh soppressata extra spice, you may use only hot sausages or increase the amount of crushed red pepper. Either way, you’ll find yourself savoring this wonderful pasta dish.
I used both mild and spicy sausages but feel free to use just one or the other. The spicy Italian sausages from Whole Foods are not overly hot so you could use them solely and skip the mild sausages if you want to.
The sausages are mixed with garlic, white wine, ground fennel, black pepper and crushed red pepper then refrigerated overnight.
A flavor base for many recipes, a mirepoix of carrots, onion and celery are an integral part of this dish just as they are for other dishes such as bolognese, soups, braised lentils and many other dishes.
Once the simmering is close to an end, start your pasta. When the pasta and sauce are done cooking, drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Mix in the grated cheese and herbs (reserve some for topping the pasta) before serving.
The Italians have a word to describe the flavor of this dish – delizioso!
Adapted from Food & Wine magazine
Ingredients
4 garlic cloves
1 1/3 cups dry white wine, divided
1 pound Italian sausage (sweet or spicy or a combination, Whole Foods meat department recommended), casings removed
1 teaspoon ground fennel (available at Down to Earth on Maui)
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion (3/4 cup), finely diced
1 small carrot (1/2 cup), finely diced
1 celery rib (1/2 cup), finely diced
1 (28 oz) can plus 1 (14 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed with their liquid
kosher salt
12 ounces spaghetti (or up to 16 ounces)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese plus more for serving
1/4 cup finely chopped basil plus more for serving
1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley plus more for serving
Directions
- Using an immersion blender or small blender, puree garlic with 1/3 cup white wine. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Add the sausage, ground fennel, black pepper and crushed red pepper and knead lightly to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
- In a large, deep skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the sausage mixture and cook over medium-high heat, breaking up lumps with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, 6-7 minutes. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook, stirring frequently , until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining 1 cup white wine and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until nearly evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and their juices to the pan and season lightly with salt. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to about 5 cups, about 40 minutes.
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until just al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss with 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1/4 cup each basil and parsley. If the sauce seems too thick, stir in some of the reserved pasta water over moderately high heat, until the pasta is nicely coated with sauce, about 2 minutes. Divide into bowls and serve with extra cheese and chopped herbs over the top.
