Mmmmm...Pork & Fennel Sausage Orecchiette

When I was pregnant with Olivia my craving was for sausages. I didn't care how they came - on bread, with mash, as a ragu, in pasta...I just needed SAUSAGE!

When I'd passed the 40 week mark and was sitting at home, huge and bored out of my mind, (this was before I'd realised I would never have several weeks by myself doing nothing ever again) I looked in the River Cafe cookbook to find two sausage pasta recipes - one would take 40 minutes, the other 2 hours. It says something about just how stir crazy I was that I chose to make the latter.

This isn't that recipe... it's reminiscent of it, but even quicker than the "fast" version. I cooked it last night and it was perfect for a chilly Canberra evening in front of MasterChef! I found it, and countless other yummy dishes, on the website of one of my fave food mags - Cuisine NZ.

what you need

3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried chilli
2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary leaves
500g pork and fennel sausages
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
400g can whole peeled Italian tomatoes, coarsely chopped
500g orecchiette pasta
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup cream
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leafed parsley
best extra virgin olive oil to serve
finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to serve

what to do

1. Warm the oil to a moderate heat in a large, heavy-based frying pan. Gently sauté garlic, chilli and rosemary until fragrant but not browned.
   
2. Remove the skins from the sausages, crumble the meat then add to the pan and fry until browned. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add the tomatoes and their juice and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in plenty of well-salted water until al dente (use the cooking times on the packet as a guide). Drain the pasta, setting aside a little of the cooking liquid (about 3 tablespoons), and reserve.
5. Stir the lemon juice in to the sausage mixture, then stir in the cream and chopped parsley. Check the seasoning and adjust if necessary.
6. Toss together the pasta, the reserved cooking liquid and the sausage sauce.
   
7. Serve on heated plates with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and top with mountains of finely grated Parmigiano- Reggiano. Serves 4.