orecchiette con salsicce e asparagi
orecchiette with sausage & asparagus in a cream sauce
This is a reasonably closely related recipe to my Pici with Zucchini and Sausage, which you'll find in the OIL chapter. But with cream. And different veg.
NB the quantities in this recipe are for 6 people!
It's probably worth mentioning a thing or two about cream sauces now. In Italy, cream in pasta has come in and out of fashion very frequently. We're currently experiencing something of a 'return to cream', but not as gratuitously or with the kind of ridiculous combination of ingredients as in the 1980s - this time around cream tends to be paired with one or two other main ingredients and add a meaningful something to the dish, rather than just excess and calories (at least, I hope that's how you'll take this dish!).
The other point worth mentioning is that the best cream pasta dishes don't look like they are swamped in gallons of white paint - most of the time, a subtle glaze and lubrication of the pasta is all you need for cream to do its creamy thing and lift your dish.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
-
wash the asparagus, remove sausage meat from casings
-
grate some pecorino
-
boil the asparagus and peas
-
cook sausage meat
-
boil the pasta water
-
chop some parsley leaves
-
warm the cream and add pecorino to make a sauce
-
cook the pasta
-
combine the sauce and pasta
orecchiette with sausage & asparagus in a cream sauce
INGREDIENTS
(6 people)
-
600-800g sausage meat (Black Farmer Pork Sausages)
-
375ml single cream
-
400g asparagus spears
-
1 garlic clove
-
fresh parsley
-
2 large handfuls frozen peas (optional)
PASTA
-
800g fresh (store-bought) orecchiette (Pasta Martimucci)
MANTECATURA
-
none, simply combine
METHOD
Remove the insides from any meaty sausage of your choice (I used Black Farmer's Pork Sausages) and dry-fry the sausage meat in a non-stick pan. Cook on a medium-low heat and break up the sausage meat with a wooden spoon, adding a crushed clove of garlic. Add a splash of white wine once the sausage has all changed colour. Let the meat simmer in the wine for 5-10 minutes, then allow it to dry out and crisp very slightly - but not burn!
In the meantime, boil the asparagus tips and cook until there’s still some resistance to them, but no crunch. But definitely not so long as to make them turn khaki in colour! Throw in two large handfuls of frozen peas (optional) to cook in the same saucepan, after the asparagus has had a minute or two of boiling.
Try and time the next step to happen a few minutes before the pasta is cooked.
Put the cream into a pasta wok on a very low heat and allow it to begin to steam but don't let it simmer or start to boil. Add a pinch of saffron, salt and pepper, and gradually stir in a few tablespoons of grated pecorino. When the orecchiette are cooked, fish them out of the cooking water and add them to the cream. Turn off the heat under the cream. Add the sausage then most of the asparagus (hold some tips back to garnish each portion) then toss and combine.
Serve immediately with more pecorino, freshly ground black pepper, and finely chopped parsley leaves.
NUTRITION PER SERVING
KCAL: 959
Fat: 37.3g
S/Fat: 16.9g
Carb: 103.1g
Sug: 8.2g
Fib: 7.4g
Prot: 47.9g
Salt: 1.52g
