Italian sausage and broccoli pasta
A classic mid-week Italian pasta. Make meatballs out of store-bought sausages, combine with sweet broccoli and tomato passata
Ingredients
1 brown onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely diced
1 small celery stalk, finely diced
1 small carrot, finely diced
4 anchovy fillets
4 pork and fennel sausages (casing removed)
1 cup tomato passata
1 can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 small red chilli (optional)
1 handful fresh basil leaves
2 broccoli heads cut into florets
400g spaghetti, cooked al dente, to serve
Method
- Heat some oil in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent.
- Then add the garlic, chilli and anchovies and saute for a further minute.
- Next, add the celery and carrot and sauté for 5 minutes—being careful not to let the sofritto burn.
- Pinch off smallish pieces of the sausage, and add to the pan, and stir until browned.
- Add the tomato passata, chopped tomatoes, wine and half the basil leaves. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.
- Add the broccoli heads and cook for a further ten minutes or until the broccoli is tender.
- While this is happening, cook your pasta to al dente
- Season the sauce with salt and pepper and toss through the pasta,
- Garnish with the remainder of the basil leaves and plenty of shaved parmesan.