paccheri alla norcina
paccheri in a sausage, cream and truffle sauce
Pasta 'alla norcina' gets its name from the 'norcino', or the butcher who was, traditionally, specialised in curing and preserving meats. In Umbria, this is a skill which can be traced back in rural communities nearly a thousand years. Which has nothing whatsoever to do with how you can cook this recipe... I'm just trying to come up with some interesting trivia for your dinner time chatter.
There are two main popular varieties of this dish, one with fresh ricotta, and one with cream. The cream version tens to be more known as ricotta is sometimes hard to come by outside Italy, so that's what you've got here.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
prepare herbs and garlic
grate some pecorino
gut and cook the sausages
begin to boil the pasta
toast some pepper
warm the cream and make the sauce
combine pasta, sauce, sausage and truffle sauce
paccheri in a sausage, cream and truffle sauce
INGREDIENTS
FOR FOUR PEOPLE
400g sausage meat
270ml single cream / cream substitute
1 clove garlic
white wine to taste
pecorino to taste (approx 100g)
black pepper to taste
2 small sprigs rosemary
store-bought mushroom & truffle sauce
PASTA 450g
Pache / Paccheri
MANTECATURA (?)
minimal to light
METHOD
Start by gently frying a crushed clove of garlic and a few sprigs of rosemary in some olive oil and butter. I like to use a heavy iron frying pan. Then add the sprigs of rosemary and the insides of 400g of mild Italian or good quality pork sausages (British 'Cumberland' sausages are also a good choice) and fry until you’ve given the meat some colour. When they’re cooked take them off the heat and set them aside, removing the garlic and rosemary.
Begin to cook your pasta (I used ‘pache’ from Marks & Spencer for the recipe on this page, but you could use paccheri or even rigationi or large penne). Grind some black pepper (about 2 teaspoons) into you pasta wok and heat gently to toast it. Keep the pepper moving and don’t let it burn - it’s done when you can smell amazingly fragrant pepper smells! Take it off the heat and let it cool for a minute or so. Add your cream or cream substitute to the pepper in your pasta wok and warm gently on a low heat. Slowly add grated pecorino to taste, until you’ve got the balance of cheese, cream and pepper that you like. I probably used about 90g.
When the pasta’s just passing ‘al dente’ fish it out and add to the wok with the cream sauce. I prefer to cook pasta that’s going to go into creamy sauces right up to the stage of almost being done, as it’s easy to make a mess of the combining stage if you need to heat it for more than 2-3 minutes. Toss it to combine, add the sausage, toss again.
Be ready to add some pasta water if the sauce begins to dry up too quickly. With most sauces, though, as long as you’re carfeul not to dry it out too much and add small amounts of pasta water every so often, you’ll be OK! When the pasta’s just about done to your liking and has been nicely coated and is holding the sauce well, stir in some pre-prepared / jar mushroom and black truffle bought sauce, to taste. Serve immediatley.
NUTRITION per serving
KCAL: 904
Fat (g): 39.9
Sat Fat (g): 19.2
Carb (g): 92.7
Sug (g): 8.3
Fibre(g): 4.8
Prot (g): 38.7
Salt (g): 2.56
