Sausage and chilli pasta with a tomato cream sauce

On a cold dark night in January (ie any January night in Britain), a hearty bowl of pasta comforts like almost nothing else. I’ve been making this recipe for just over a year and have long planned to write it up with pictures of each step. But it’s so quick to make that I have failed on each occasion to picture each step. A refined post may happen at some point, but for now, I thought it better to get something on the internet given it’s exactly a year since I last posted in this section of my website. Ho hum.

A note about pasta sauce

I very much subscribe to the school of thought that says

Pasta sauce should either cook in the time it takes to cook your pasta or should be an intense labour of love with hours of slow braising. This recipe is the former, for an example of the latter, click here for my beef ragu recipe
Sauce should lightly coat your pasra, not drown it.

The second point is personal preference but I’ve added it here to caveat the recipe; if you want more sauce you’ll need to add passata to it. Follow the recipe the first time and see what you think before adapting it.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

"Mise en place" is a revered culinary practice rooted in the French phrase "everything in its place." While TV chefs have undeniably made cooking more approachable and widespread, this trend has come at a price: the misconception that all of us can rapidly chop and prepare ingredients while cooking. Managing to ensure precise cooking times and adjusting the taste as you go is impeded when you have to divert your attention from the pan to chop ingredients. By prepping everything in advance, you can focus solely on the cooking process, ultimately allowing this dish to be made in just 15 minutes.

Ingredients

Serves 2 - you can double or treble with ease. Beyond that and unless you have a huge pan, I’d suggest making it in batches.

A high quality sausage removed from its case. (I like something with fennel for this dish)

A shallot finely diced (or half an onion)

Two cloves of garlic finely sliced

One red chilli finely diced, reserving a little to garnish

2-3 Savoy cabbage leaves, stalk removed and finely chopped

Chives, basil or parsley finely chopped (Your dish, your choice)

200g of pasta

A small can or pot of tomato puree.

75ml Double cream

Extra virgin olive oil and normal olive oil

Two handfuls of grated Parmesan

Optional: half a glass of white wine

Optional; passata if you want a greater volume of sauce

Step 1 - Two pans: Sausage and water

Pasta needs space to cook and not stick so take a large pot, fill it with salted water and bring it up to the boil. In a separate pan on a medium hear, add a little regular olive oil and then squeeze out the sausage in little chunks. Flatten with a wooden spoon and keep breaking it up so that it cooks gently but does not colour. The amount of oil you need depends on how much fat there is in the sausage. Enough to fry without drowning in oil, not so little that it burns. When it no longer looks raw, move onto step 2. If the pan of water is not yet boiling, take the sausage off the heat until it is.

Step 2 - cook the sauce and boil the pasta

Put the pasta into the now boiling water and time it for 1 minute under how long the packet directs for al dente. I’m assuming you have about 8-9 minutes at this point which is all the sauce takes.

In the pan with the sausage, add the garlic, shallot, chilli and savoy cabbage and on a medium heat, soften for a 2-3 minutes, stirring from time to time to stop things burning. You may need a little more oil.

Next, add the tomato puree, stir and cook it for a minute to remove the raw flavour. Then add the white wine if using and turn the heat up until the wine has mostly evaporated and the sauce is sticky. Turn the heat back down to medium and add a ladle of the cooking water from the pasta. Stir and let the starch in the water bring the sauce together. Now add the cream, stirring again to combine. (If you are adding passata to bulk up the sauce, add it now and cook for a minute) Add one handful of grated parmesan and stir.

Take it off the heat for a moment.

Step 3 - Assessment

Taste the sauce. What does it need? Probably a bit of salt. A good twist of pepper for sure. Next, if it’s thick, add a half ladle of pasta water until it is loose and silky.

Step 4 - Add the pasta and move quickly

Just before the pasta is ready, reserve a mug of pasta water. Then drain the pasta and add it to the sauce back on a medium heat. It will likely be claggy so add a bit of the pasta water to loosen it up. Briskly mix the pasta into the sauce. Turn it out into two warmed bowls

Step 5 - Garnish

Use the second handful of parmesan by sprinkling it over the two bowls. Sprinkle too the herb or herbs of your choice. Drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil and a twist of pepper.

Enjoy.

Sausage, savoy cabbage and chilli pasta with tomato cream sauce