This really is a favourite dish and it comes from the king of pasta Tim Siadatan of London Italian neighbourhood restaurant Trullo and Padella pasta bar in Borough Market. If you have ever been up to Borough Market you will have seen the permanent snaking queue whenever the doors are open and it’s understandable why.

This recipe is from the book Trullo, which by the way is an awesome cookery book. I would say though that you need to have a decent grasp of kitchen knowledge and just knowing how to do things or to work out what some of the steps are as it’s written very much by a cook for cooks. That said there are loads of easy peasy pasta dishes in it which will have you cooking them over and over again which will become staple dishes in your household.

This recipe like quite a few I love, isn’t a five minute job. Take your time to prep everything before you start, makes it so much easier when you come to make the dish. Imagine you’re on a cookery programme and they have everything measured out and in little bowls and dishes etc. I cannot emphasise enough how much easier this makes cooking and is very theraputic as well. Just pour yourself a glass of wine, pop on your favourite tunes and enjoy cooking up a fabulous dish.

Top tip for this recipe: Boil the peppercorns way ahead, you can do this at anytime and means you won’t be rushing about. Tim appears to be a lover of pepper, a tablespoon is quite a lot, so you may want to pare the amount back a bit.

For your mirepoix (chopped vegetables) these really do need to be finely diced. If you’re knife skills aren’t up to it, you can chop into chunks and chop up in a food processor. Dont go too mad though as you don’t want pulp! Check out the image of the chopped veg in the recipe below.

Trullo’s Pappardelle with Fennel Sausage Ragu

Cuisine: Italian

Servings

servings

This is a really easy and tasty ragu. In future you may want to make more of the ragu itself just to have as leftovers, on toast the next day as Tim recommends and so do I, or make a cracking leftovers lunch dish. I promise you it tastes great like this as well.

Ingredients

400g of dried pappardelle or make your own of course
600g plain pork sausagemeat
175ml white wine
Olive oil
1 carrot finely chopped
1 celery stick finely chopped
1/2 onion fine chopped
1/2 fennel bulb finely chopped
4 garlic cloves finely chopped
grated zest of 1/2 an orange
bay leaves, thyme and rosemary tied up in a bundle with string to make a bouquet garni
300ml chicken stock
2 tablespoons of mascarpone
handful of parsley leaves finely chopped
parmesan finely grated
salt & pepper
olive oil
Spices
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped deseeded dried chilli or dried chilli flakes
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons of fennel seeds

Directions

Boil the peppercons in a small pan of water for 30 minutes to soften them, then drain
Toast the chilli and fennel seeds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for a couple of minutes, then tip onto a plate immediately to stop the cooking process. Make sure you let them cool down before whizzing up to a fine powder in a grinder or use a good old pestle and mortar. Then add this to the sausage meat and season with the nutmeg, salt & pepper.
Over a medium heat, heat a pan that’s large enough to hold the sausage meat in a about a 2cm layer. If not you may have to do two batches as you don’t want the sausage meat to stew. Colour the meat until golden brown. Don’t rush this stage as this is where you’re getting loads of flavour from the browning (known as the Maillard Reaction – it’s what gives browned food it’s distinctive flavour). Then deglaze with a glug of the wine and cook for a further 5 minutes. Transfer the meat to a bowl or container.
In the same pan, on a medium to low heat, add a glug of olive oil, the vegetables, garlic, orange zest, fresh herbs and whole peppercorns. Sweat down until the vegetables are soft – around 20 minutes.
Add the sausage meat back to the pan and mix together. Add the rest of the white win and cook for about 5 minutes, scraping all the good bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken stock, cover with greaseproof paper (make a cartouche by scrunching up the paper into a ball and then opening back out – you can then put it on top of the contents cooking without it pinging off!) and cook on a medium to low heat for 1 hour. Keep checking on it to make sure it’s not catching on the bottom. Add a little more stock if it’s drying out.
Once ragu is cooked, check for seasoning and add the mascarpone.
Bring a large pan of water up to the boil and add salt to resemble mild sea water (honestly, do this, it makes a difference). Add the pappardelle and cook for however long is needed.
When the pasta is cooked, remove the pasta from the water (keep the pasta water) and add the pasta to the pan of ragu and toss together. Vigorously toss the pasta in the pan for at least 30 secs to work the gluten. Add a splash of cooking water if it starts to dry up. Continue tossing the pasta until the sauce emulsifies and is viscous.
Add the fresh parsley and fold together. Top with parmesan and servie immediately

Notes

Ensure you wash out your pasta pan IMMEDIATELY or you may find you come back to it later with a hole in it courtesy of the salt!

Source: Trullo