Sausage and radicchio pasta

This recipe comes from Alice's book, In Praise of Veg. If you multi-task the prep well, this pasta dish will be on the table faster than a pizza delivery! I often add spiralised zucchinis to add extra vegetables as an optional extra.

Sausage and radicchio pasta Credit: Kitti Gould

• serves

  4

• prep

  5 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 500 g spaghetti
• ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil
• 500 g pork and fennel sausages (see Note), removed from their casings
• 1–2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 small fennel bulb, finely sliced, fronds reserved for garnishing
• 2 tbsp sake (optional)
• 1 head radicchio (see Note), shredded
• 2 zucchini, spiralised (optional)
• 100 g Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
• salt and black pepper

Instructions

1. Bring a large saucepan of well-salted water to the boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan over medium heat. When the heat emanates from the pan with your palm hovering above, pour in a tablespoon of the olive oil, then add the sausage meat and hack at it with a wooden spoon to break it up into crumbly bits.
3. Once the meat has browned, add the garlic and fennel and cook for 3 minutes, or until softened slightly, then deglaze the pan with the sake, if using, or a splash of water or vinegar.
4. Transfer the meat mixture to a bowl. Toss the radicchio into the pan, splash in another tablespoon of oil, increase the heat and let it wilt and colour.
5. When the pasta is cooked, reserve a mugful of the pasta cooking water. If using the zucchini, pop it in a colander, then drain your pasta through it so the hot pasta water softens it slightly.
6. Return the meat mixture to the pan, along with the drained pasta, and zucchini, if using. Sprinkle in about half the parmesan and pour in the reserved pasta water. Stir everything about until the sauce reduces and thickens.
7. Portion into bowls. Top with the remaining parmesan and olive oil, the fennel fronds and plenty of freshly cracked black pepper and serve.

Note

• This recipe benefits from the best quality pork sausages – free-range pork, natural casings and no additional fillers are ideal.

• A more bitter variety of radicchio would really suit this recipe – but chicory, frisée or witlof would work well, too.

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Stream free On Demand

Simple Sausages

Watch The Full Episode Here

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Watch The Full Episode Here

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