orecchiette con sedano arrosto e salsicce
orecchiette with roast celery and Calabrian sausages
Tinned peas might not sound like an incredibly cheffy ingredient, but they actually make a perfect base for oil-based sauces. I was inspired to write this recipe when I saw Michela Chiappa post about the delights of roast celery on her social media. And she was abolutely right, roast celery, cooked in just EVO, parmesan and black pepper is an incredible side vegetable recipe (I cooked some to go with a roast chicken) - but then decided on the spot that this was too good a flavour not to include in a pasta dish.
So here you are. I added the peas as a base sauce mostly because my daughter complains if pasta doesn't have one, but I'm glad I did and I'd certainly use them again as a base or even in a pea pesto...
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
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roast the celery
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skin the sausages
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cook sausage meat in beer
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stir cheese and oil into peas
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boil the pasta
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combine pea sauce with pasta
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add celery, toss to combine
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add sausage meat, toss to combine
orecchiette with roast celery and Calabrian sausages
INGREDIENTS
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400g calabrian sausages (M&S)
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900g celery
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150ml Corona beer
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170g tinned mushy peas (Batchelors)
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parmesan
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EVO
PASTA
500g fresh Orecchiette (Martimucci)
MANTECATURA
light
METHOD
900g might sound like a lot of celery, but it does tend to reduce in size a bit, so you really do need quite a bit!
Begin by roasting the celery - just cut the stalks apart and parboil them for about 5-7 minutes. Next, pat them dry and place them in a couple of oven dishes. Sprinkle with loads of parmesan. Drizzle over some EVO and add freshly ground black pepper. Roast for roughly 30 min on Gas Mark 5 - but don't burn them!
While the celery's in the oven, cook the sausages. Skin them and begin to dry fry them in a non-stick pan. I used Marks & Spencer's Calabrian Sausages but tradition British pork sausages and maybe a little extra 'nduja would be a great alternative too.
Drain away any excess fat that collects in the pan after a few minutes, than pour in a splash of Corona beer (or the lager of your choice). Simmer the meat in the beer for a few minutes and allow most of the juices to evaporate, then set the pan aside.
Weigh the peas and warm them slighlty, so they're more easy to stir than how they come out of the tin! Grate roughly a tablespoon's worth of parmesan and stir this through the peas, together with a tablespoon of EVO and a generous sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper.
Boil and cook the pasta. Add the peas to a warmed pasta pan, together with half a ladle's worth of cooking water. Add the almost-cooked pasta to the peas, toss to combine. Add the celery and toss again. Finally, add the sausage, toss and plate.
NUTRITION PER SERVING
KCAL: 773
Fat (g): 24.0
Sat Fat (g): 9.1
Carb (g): 96.8
Sug (g): 6.3
Fib(g): 7.9
Prot (g): 35.2
Salt (g): 2.79
