RECIPE TIPS AND NOTES
- This is fusion cuisine at its best! It brings together the traditional cooking of Italian nonna’s and ancient Chinese masters. Now there’s a cook-off I’d like to witness!
- It’s called chili crisp and it is the colour of nightmares, but in actual fact it’s not too spicy. There’s so much more to it thanks to the earthy soybeans and sweet fried onions.
- Chili crisp can be bought in big supermarkets or online, but if you have no luck add ½ tsp of dried chili flakes. It won’t be the same, but it will be better than nothing!
- A thick and chewy pasta is required to stand up to this robust sauce. I’ve gone for pappardelle, it’s a long, broad, and flat; perfect for ragu. If you only have ridged tubes like penne or rigatoni, they’ll work too.
- Italian sausage with garlic and fennel is the one. But if you really can’t source any, be sure to add ½ tsp of fennel seeds to your sausages.
- Take the sausages out of their casing and break them into chunks like rough meatballs for evenly saucy and meaty mouthfuls.
- You want a good colour on the sausage meat before adding the next ingredients. Let the meat pieces caramelise undisturbed in the pan, don’t bat them about too much!
- I recommend buying canned whole tomatoes. They tend to be better quality compared to chopped ones. Then mash them up yourself with a potato masher.
- Finally, if the sauce seems too tart, go ahead and add a pinch of sugar.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 450g / 4-6 Italian sausages
- 100ml / ½ cup white wine, dry optional
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp Melbourne Chilli Oil plus 2 tbsp for serving
- 400g / 14 oz canned tomatoes whole or chopped
- 500ml / 2 cups tomato passata / crushed tomatoes
- Salt to taste
- 450g/1 lbs pappardelle
INSTRUCTIONS
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Remove sausages from their casing, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a deep pan and cook sausage meat over medium heat while breaking it up in small chunks with a wooden spoon until no longer pink inside for 7-10 minutes. Add the garlic and fennel seeds, cook for 1-2 minutes, then deglaze the pan with the dry white or red wine if using.
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Add canned tomatoes and tomato passata (or crushed tomatoes) along with the chilli crisp bring to a simmer and then turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes. Season with salt to taste. If the sauce is a bit too tart, add a pinch of white sugar.
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Meanwhile cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, toss to coat. Serve topped with freshly grated Parmesan and additional chili crisp.