PEA & PARMESAN PASTA WITH ITALIAN PORK SAUSAGE
A household favourite with good reason. This dish has just 6 main ingredients, minimal chopping required, and is incredibly flavoursome. It comes together soooo fast, and honestly, the flavour from the sausage does all the heavy lifting.
This is the kind of meal you could eat on your own, whip up for the family mid-week, or bring to a potluck dinner. Just delicious.
Ingredients
Method
Equipment: Large stockpot, strainer, large frypan, microplane.
Place a large pot of water over high heat, bring it to a boil.
While the pasta water heats up, place the fry pan over medium heat ready for the sausages.
Squeeze the meat out of the sausage casings directly into the hot fry pan. Break the bits up with a wooden spoon. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until golden with some crispy edges. Keep the fry pan on low heat while you finish cooking the pasta.
When the water is at a rapid boil, add a good dash of salt. Throw in your pasta and set a timer for 2 minutes less than the packet says (or 3-4 minutes if you prefer it al dente). Don’t forget to reserve 1 cup of pasta water a few minutes in!
When there are 2 minutes remaining on the timer, add in the peas. Once the time is up, strain the peas and pasta, and add them to the fry pan, along with 3/4s of the pasta water. Give it a good mix.
Add the parmesan and keep mixing - the sauce should thicken in a few minutes. Add the remaining pasta water if it looks a little dry.
Stir through the lemon zest and half a lemon juiced, along with the parsley, and a good pinch of salt and pepper, mix again. Taste, and adjust if necessary.
Serve up with some extra parmesan and enjoy the simplest form of comfort - pasta, cheese and sausages.
Leftovers keep for up to 3 days.
Makes 4-5 servings
Olive oil
500g good quality Italian pork sausages
500g pasta of choice (I’ve used casarecce)
2 cups baby peas (frozen or fresh)
60g Parmesan (freshly grated)
1 lemon, for juice and zest
1/4 bunch parsley, finely chopped
Salt and pepper