This is a late summer-early fall pasta sauce, with rich wild mushrooms - chanterelles, though if you had to you could use other wild mushrooms, for example morels or oyster mushrooms - and hearty sausages to keep the first fall chills at bay, and bright tomato. A delightful combination!
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Ingredients:
- A pound (450 g) fresh cavatelli, or other short firm pasta, for example trofie. Corkscrews would also work.
- The needles from a sprig of rosemary, finely chopped
- A clove of garlic, peeled and minced
- A shallot, peeled and chopped
- Olive oil
- 1/3 pound (150 g) fresh mild sausage, casing removed
- 2/3 pound (300 g) fresh chatarelles, morels or oyster mushrooms, roots trimmed, brushed free of dirt, and sliced lengthwise
- 1/2 cup mild pitted black olives, ideally Taggiasca
- 2/3 of a 1-pound (450 g) can chopped tomatoes (i.e. 300 g)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Set pasta water to boil. When it boils salt it, and cook the pasta.
In the meantime, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepot large enough to also contain the pasta. Add the minced rosemary needles, garlic, and shallot. Cook for a minute or so, and then crumble the sausage meat into the pot. Continue to cook, stirring the meat about to break it up, until it has browned. Add the mushrooms and continue to simmer, stirring gently.
After 3-5 minutes, add the tomato sauce and the olives. Check seasoning and simmer another 20 minutes. By now the pasta water should be boiling; cook the pasta.
Check the seasoning of the sauce. Drain the pasta when it is just shy of being done and turn it immediately into the saucepot with the sauce. Turn the heat to high and cook, stirring, for a minute more. Serve at once.
The wine? Red, and zesty, I would say, and would be tempted by a Bardolino, or perhaps a young Nero di Troia.
In the meantime, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepot large enough to also contain the pasta. Add the minced rosemary needles, garlic, and shallot. Cook for a minute or so, and then crumble the sausage meat into the pot. Continue to cook, stirring the meat about to break it up, until it has browned. Add the mushrooms and continue to simmer, stirring gently.
After 3-5 minutes, add the tomato sauce and the olives. Check seasoning and simmer another 20 minutes. By now the pasta water should be boiling; cook the pasta.
Check the seasoning of the sauce. Drain the pasta when it is just shy of being done and turn it immediately into the saucepot with the sauce. Turn the heat to high and cook, stirring, for a minute more. Serve at once.
The wine? Red, and zesty, I would say, and would be tempted by a Bardolino, or perhaps a young Nero di Troia.
