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lightly creamy rigatoni pasta with sausage

Creamy Pasta with Sausage & Wine Sauce (Almost Pasta alla Norcina)


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  • Author: Kelly
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x

Description

This creamy sausage and wine pasta sauce could not be easier to make or more delicious and it’s ready in just 25 minutes from start to finish! Inspired by “Pasta alla Norcina” from the Umbria region of Italy (and also with what I had in my fridge when I made it), this version skips using expensive hard-to-find Italian truffles so anyone anywhere can make it. And believe me, you won’t miss them because each heavenly bite stands up all on its own. Not only does this creamy sausage and wine sauce satisfy every craving for creamy pasta, but it does it without being heavy.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 12 ounces rigatoni pasta (350g) (sub penne, or favorite pasta)
  • Italian Norcia sausage (260g) (sub favorite sweet sausage or make your own) *see recipe notes
  • 2 tablespoons quality dry white wine (30g) (sub dry red wine, or Marsala wine)
  • 1 large shallot, finely diced (50g) (sub onion)
  • 1/2 small carrot, finely diced (30g)
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream (115g)
  • 1 ounce grated Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese (30g) (sub Grana Padano or Parmesan)
  • 2 to 3 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (15g)
  • 6 basil leaves (optional)
  • salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
  • finely chopped chives for garnish (optional but recommended)
  • a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)


Instructions

  1. Boil the pasta water. While you’re working on making the sauce, bring a pot of lightly salted pasta water to a boil. Do not salt it “like the sea” (that’s bad advice). Instead, salt it just enough to taste it and it flavors the pasta well but doesn’t make our finished sauce too salty later on when we add some of this starchy water to the sausage cream sauce.
  2. Build the sauce base. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a sauté pan or skillet set over medium-high heat, add the smashed garlic and shallots, and cook until fragrant and shallots are just tender but not browned (about 2 minutes). Add the chopped carrots and cook until just tender (about 2 more minutes) and reduce the heat to medium. Add the sausage pinching it off into small pieces as you go. Season with a little salt and add 3 basil leaves (if using) and cook the meat for about 5 to 6 minutes or until completely cooked through. Increase the heat once more to medium-high and continue cooking the sausage until lightly browned (about 4 minutes). *At this stage when the meat goes from just being cooked through, to slightly browned, it will start to sizzle more and sound different. This browning (building the fond) helps add a lot of flavor to the sauce when you deglaze the pan with wine in the next step.
  3. Deglaze the pan with wine. With the heat on medium-high, add the wine to the pan and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan (the fond) and stir to incorporate it. Set a timer for 3 minutes and cook until the wine has evaporated and the meat and the pan look glossy. 
  4. Add the heavy cream.  Add the cream and 3 fresh basil leaves to the sausage mixture, stir to combine, and cook for 3 minutes, or until it looks like the sausage has soaked up most (or all) of the cream. At this point, your pasta should be just about cooked through and the starchy cooking water is ready to be added. 
  5. Finish the cream sauce. During the last 3 minutes of pasta cooking time, remove about 3/4 cup of starchy cooking water to a heatproof glass. Add about 1/4 cup to the sausage cream mixture and stir to incorporate it. You’ll notice the cream magically reappears and the sauce looks glossy from binding the starches to the fat in the cream. Add more starchy water as needed to reach desired consistency stirring and cooking just until it looks glossy and smooth (not goopy or thick, nor watery). Taste the sauce and adjust seasonings (adding salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste), but remember you’ll be adding grated cheese in the next step which also has salt in it.
  6. Strain the pasta and assemble the pasta. Add the strained pasta directly to the sauce and toss everything quickly to combine. Turn off the heat, add the grated cheese, and diced chives (if using), and toss well. Serve immediately, and Enjoy!

Notes

  • If you love garlic, feel free to increase the amount used and smash it into the sauce towards the end when you add the cream. This will give you a super garlicky white wine cream sauce without spending any prep time mincing it. We prefer to smash the garlic, season the olive oil with it first as it blisters, and then allow it to perfume the sauce before removing it just before adding the pasta and tossing everything together. But if you’re a garlic lover, go ahead and mash the garlic cloves into the sauce at the end.
  • Although white wine is typically used to deglaze the pan in this sauce, I’ve also made this pasta using a dry red wine, and even Marsala wine, and guess what — they’re all super delicious and produce really similar taste results. Just use what you have or what you like to drink. Also, authentic pasta alla Norcina contains shaved truffles, but we’re not using them for this recipe. But do NOT use truffle oil as a replacement because it tastes nothing like real truffles and could ruin or overpower this delicious delicate sauce.
  • I’ve added fresh basil leaves to perfume the sauce which is not found in a real Norcina sauce (but it’s delicious). Use them or don’t.
  • I use a tiny amount of finely chopped carrots which add a slightly nutty sweetness to the sauce, but they too are not found in a real Norcina sauce but they’re delicious.
  • Add sautéed mushrooms or a few finely diced grape tomatoes at the end which also taste great in this pasta.
  • If you find that your sauce is ready before the pasta is finished cooking, after you’ve added the cream to the sausage mixture, allow it to cook for a couple of minutes and then turn off the heat. At this point, the sausage will have absorbed the cream and you may be thinking there won’t be any cream sauce at all. But don’t worry, this is where the magic of the starchy pasta cooking water comes in. When the pasta is about 3 minutes from al dente, turn the heat back on to the skillet with the sausage mixture. get it nice and warm and once it’s hot, lade in a little pasta water and watch the sauce come to life. It’s amazing and at this point, it’s hard not to eat it by the spoonful (really). Finish the pasta as directed.
  • If you love the flavor of basil, feel free to increase the amount used. And alternatively, if you don’t enjoy basil, simply omit it.
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Category: Pasta
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Italian

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe
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