As a father of teenage sons, who are both over 6 foot tall, and can wolf down quite extraordinary volumes of food in a single sitting it is imperative that my culinary repertoire includes some staple dishes that are cheap and easy to prepare and sufficiently tasty to be trotted out frequently. One such is 'Spicy Sausage Pasta' from which I am indebted to Nigel Slater and his excellent cook book 'Real Cooking' [Penguin Books 1997]. If one had to pay royalties for recipe usage I'd have bankrupted myself with this one as it has served me faithfully for years. My hardback copy is battle-scarred and soup-stained but I am sure Nigel would approve. The key thing is to source some decent sausages, preferably with Italian seasoning, and thereafter it's a cinch.
William, Jason and Alfred Yapp
You fry the de-skinned sausage meat in a little olive oil and then de-glaze the pan with a glass of white wine. You then add some chilli flakes and chopped basil, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and thicken the sauce with 200 millilitres of double cream. Once that is well mixed together and warmed through you serve it over tube or shell shaped pasta. I favour rigatti or fusilli for their sauce-holding properties. Nige only deploys four sausages but, for the reasons made clear above, I double or even triple up volumes. It can all end up looking a bit beige so I have taken to adding a chopped fresh red chilli to the sausage meat during the frying and a handful of chopped rocket or watercress as garnish.
Nigel Slater - Spicy Sausage Pasta
I serve this about once a month and no-one complains. As it is a recipe that requires a glass or two of white wine I'd serve it with the same. This month's Savoie: Domaine de L'Idylle: Roussette 'Cuvée Emilie' 2015 would be ideal.
