Sausage & Fennel Pasta
A quick pasta dish with yielding sausage meat, fresh fennel and a creamy ricotta sauce
Ingredients
- 4 Pork Sausages or 240g Sausage Meat
- 0.25 tsp Fennel Seeds
- Pinch Salt
- 1 Clove Garlic
- 0.5 tsp Chilli Flakes
- 1 Small Fennel Bulb
- 125 grams Ricotta
- 2 Servings Pasta I use 112g Pappardelle
Instructions
- Get some salted water boiling for your pasta, cook this as per the packets instructions.
- In a pestle and mortar rough up the Fennel seeds until you get a good amount of fibrous dust.Squeeze out the Sausage meat from the skins if using sausages.Add the Fennel dust to the Sausage meat and a generous pinch of Salt and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Finely slice the Fennel Bulb.We are using the white part that looks like an onion and can be cut in much the same way.Finely chop the Garlic clove.
- Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the Sausage. Prodding to break it up into chunks.Keep disturbing the Sausage Meat and fry until golden and crisp and cooked through 5 – 7 minutes.Tip the cooked Sausage onto a plate and add the sliced Fennel to the pan. You may need to add a splash of oil depending how much fat the sausages have left behind.
- Once the fennel has started to turn golden after about 4 minutes add the Garlic and Chilli Flakes and cook for 2 minute.Add the sausage back to the pan and turn the heat off.
- Scoop out 60ml of the pasta water (a ¼ cup measure) and mix with the Ricotta to loosen.
- Drain the pasta and add to the Ricotta.
- Next mix the Sausage and Fennel with the Pasta and Ricotta. Serve in pasta bowls garnished with the leafy green fronds of the Fennel.
Notes
LEFTOVER TIPS
If you have enough you can tip this into a dish and top with breadcrumbs and crushed crisps (such as my garlic and fennel baked chips) and bake to have a delicious pasta bake.I wouldn’t count on having leftovers though.