Or for a walk on the mild side, Italian sausage pasta with mushrooms is comfortingly creamy and without a tomato or chili in sight.
Chili crisp pasta
Can’t quite get your head around chili crisp? Let alone chili crisp pasta? Let me break it down for you. Chinese cuisine is a treasure trove of weird and wonderful condiments, and the brand Loa Gan Ma offers up this tabletop wonder pot of Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilies in oil. You’ve probably seen it stacked in a plastic basket next to the soy sauce, chilli flakes and rice vinegar in your local spit-and-sawdust Thai place and given it a swerve. Mistake! But don’t be intimidated! It may be a thick paste, studded with chili seeds and a shade of deepest hell red, but it’s actually not that fiery. The chili crisp recipe includes crispy onions giving texture and sweetness, and fermented soybeans serving up rich umami notes. Think tongue-tingling rather than skin removal. So, what is this Chinese seasoning doing paired up with pappardelle pasta? First, pasta and noodles are essentially the same just geographically different, right? And it’s widely agreed that a dash of chili in noodle soup is a savoury blessing. Second, chili and iconic pasta dishes are a thing! Think puttanesca or arrabiata.
Sausage ragu
Ragu is usually a labour of love reserved for a lazy weekend. Tuscan beef ragu is a patient soffritto sauté followed by an hours’ long simmer. This sausage ragu version on the other hand, is blessedly quick and fuss-free. Cooked on the stove top in under 30 minutes means this recipe is a midweek dinner winner. While you could use sausage meat and season it yourself, I am all about cutting corners right now and buy Italian sausages. They have a coarser texture than regular sausages and are already seasoned with garlic and fennel making them extra convenient. Using flavoured ones is a quick hack for added depth to the sauce, but if you can only find plain pork sausages, don’t panic just add extra fennel seeds if that’s to your taste. And the chili crisp adds an unexpected complexity. Tart with tomatoes and fennel, a hint of its warmth helps to bring the sauce back down to the ground.
Serving suggestions
I would never serve antipasti at a midweek dinner, but I might treat the family to a three-course meal at the weekend. If you’re feeling frivolous, bookend this sausage ragu pasta with low-prep prosciutto caprese parcels to start and amarena gelato for dessert, or salted caramel affogato for the grownups. Or just serve it up with some crusty sourdough to sop up the sauce, and a green side. A simple green salad or some crunchy and bright lemon green beans. Buon appetito!
Storage and leftovers
While pasta tends not to fare so well in the fridge, sausage ragu with chili crisp does! If you notice a disproportionate amount of ragu to pasta before putting them together, keep some of the sauce back. It will keep, and gloriously intensify in flavour, for 2-3 days in the fridge. Then reheat on the hob in the time it takes to cook up a fresh portion of pasta.
More Italian Recipes to try
Blackened Chicken Alfredo Italian Rosemary Chicken Stew Creamy Mushroom Marsala Sauce Tagliatelle with Pancetta, Basil and Mozzarella
