This pasta is so easy to make and is perfect for winter; texture is provided by sage leaves and crumbled pork sausage. It’s one of those dishes where the simplicity of the ingredients leads to full and lingering flavours. This could be made vegetarian by leaving out the sausage and substituting with some toasted pine nuts.
Extra virgin olive oil
1/2 butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced into 2cm cubes
1 bulb fennel, outer leaves removed and chopped
1 head garlic, cloves separated and chopped into halves or thirds
2 tsp sugar
salt & cracked black pepper, to season
1 Italian pork sausage, skin removed and flesh crumbled
40 sage leaves
400gm egg fettucine or papadelle pasta, cooked al dente
Parmesan, grated
1. Pre heat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. In an oven tray, toss together the pumpkin, fennel and garlic with the sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Add a good drizzle of olive oil and toss again. Roast for 30 minutes or until pumpkin is starting to caremelize and is lovely and brown outside.
2. Put pasta on to cook in a large pan of salted water.
3. Meanwhile, heat a generous couple of glugs of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the sausage mince; once this is starting to brown, add the sage leaves and turn the heat down to low. There should be enough oil in the pan for the leaves to fry and crisp up nicely. Once sage is crisp and sausage is browned, remove from the heat.
4. Drain pasta and return to pan over low heat. Tip the frying pan with the sausage and sage gently so that the oil pools down one end and can be spooned up and added to the pasta. Toss through. Add the roasted veggies and toss through with a handful of grated parmesan. Add salt & cracked pepper to taste.
5. Serve pasta and top with the pork and sage mixture and more parmesan, if desired.
