Italian Sausage and Fennel Ragù with Penne

Jump to Recipe

This mouth-watering, creamy Italian Sausage and Fennel Ragù with Penne, is bursting with a range of flavours from the sausages, fennel seeds, garlic, chilli and fresh herbs. The cream and wine add a luxurious touch to this delightful pasta sauce, without being too rich or losing its ‘comfort food’ appeal. For all the delicious and harmonious flavours, it is still, thankfully, remarkably quick and simple to make and ideal for a weeknight supper or a night in with guests.

Where is this recipe from?

This recipe is slightly tweaked from this Rick Stein Sausage Ragù and Tagliatelle recipe. Most notably, I have by decreased the amount of cream and increased the amount of stock. This makes the dish slightly less rich, thus ensuring it is a great pasta dish to serve all year round. I have also decreased the cooking time from around an hour to around ½ an hour.

I have been making this sauce for years and it never fails to deliver. Just a few points to bear in mind –

• I use shop bought penne pasta which works wonderfully well. Rick Stein, of course, uses homemade tagliatelle, which I’m sure is amazing. However, my recommendation would be to choose your favourite pasta and use that, be it shop bought dried, fresh or homemade.
• Do try and get good quality Italian sausages. They offer a different flavour and texture palate to a lot of British sausages. However, whilst they are easily available in London, this may not be the case outside of larger cities. If you can’t find any, choose some good quality pork sausages and consider increasing the fennel, garlic and chilli, to taste.

How to make Italian Sausage and Fennel Ragù with Penne

Collect all your ingredients together:

For the ragù:

• olive oil
• Italian sausages
• onion, peeled and finely chopped
• celery, washed, trimmed and finely chopped
• carrot, washed, trimmed and finely chopped
• garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• fennel seeds
• chilli flakes
• chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• white wine
• chicken or beef stock
• double/heavy cream
• fine salt, or to taste
• freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

• your pasta of choice
• chopped fresh rosemary or shredded basil
• finely grated parmesan
• crisp green salad served with balsamic dressing

How to make this fabulous soup:

1. First, take the skin off the sausages. Use a sharp knife to cut down the length of the sausage, peel off and discard the skin.
2. Heat some olive oil in a cast iron pan/frying pan over a moderate heat and add the sausages. Use a wooden spoon to break up the meat. Cook for around 10 minutes until broken up, cooked through and lightly caramelised.
3. Remove the sausages and excess oil from the pan, onto a plate or bowl lined with kitchen towel, to absorb the fat.
4. As the sausage cooks, prepare the vegetables. Peel (if necessary) and roughly chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic and then give them a quick blitz in a food processor. Alternatively, finely chop them by hand.
5. Heat more olive oil in the pan over a moderate heat and add the chopped vegetables. Cook, stirring from time to time, for around 5 minutes, until softened and lightly caramelised.
6. Now add the fennel seeds, chilli flakes and the rosemary. Cook for a further minute until aromatic.
7. Return the sausage to the pan, add the wine and cook until reduced by half.
8. Now add the salt and chicken stock and cook for 10 minutes, lid off, until the stock has reduced by half and thickened.
9. Add the cream, taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper .
10. To serve: stir the ragù into some hot, cooked pasta, sprinkle with chopped, fresh rosemary or shredded basil and serve with salad on the side. Hand the parmesan round separately.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.