This pasta dish is from Umbria and is great for a quick midweek meal. The intense flavour of the porcini is what gives the pasta its flavour. If you can get Italian sausages, great, if not add fennel seeds for an authentic flavour. Enjoy!
Ingredients (Serves 4)
- 20g dried porcini mushrooms
- 4 large sausages, such as Italian or cumberland (if using cumberland, add a pinch of fennel seeds to the meat while cooking)
- 400g bucatini
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1-2 tsp chilli flakes
- 125ml white wine
- 150ml double cream
- Grating of nutmeg
- Large handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- Parmesan, grated, to serve
Tip the dried porcini mushrooms into a large pan with 500ml boiling water from the kettle. Set over a low heat and simmer for 10-15 mins until slightly reduced to make an intense mushroom stock.
Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Squeeze the sausage meat from the skins into the pan and fry for 5-8 mins, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks, until lightly browned. (Don’t forget to add the fennel seeds if you haven’t got Italian sausages).
Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drop in the bucatini and move it around using tongs to prevent it sticking together. Cook for 9 mins. Meanwhile, add the garlic and chilli flakes to the sausage meat and fry for 1 min before pouring in the wine. Cook for 5 mins more until the wine has reduced, then tip in the rehydrated mushrooms and the stock (you should have about 350ml). Season with salt and black pepper, then bring to a simmer.
After roughly 9 mins, use the tongs to move the bucatini directly from its cooking water into the mushroom sauce. The mixture will seem quite watery at first, but the trick is to finish cooking the bucatini by simmering it in the broth – it will soak it all up and take on the earthy flavour. Keep moving the pasta in the broth using the tongs for 3 mins, or until most of the water has been absorbed. Stir in the cream, a grating of nutmeg and the parsley. Stir well, taste for seasoning and serve topped with lots of parmesan.
Next month’s recipe: ”Crayfish Salad with Dill and Mint’
by Judy Barden