Sausage and Pea Pasta with Fennel and Chilli

Serves 2+

A quick weeknight dinner is always a winner. This sauce cooks in the time it takes to cook the pasta and with just a handful of ingredients it couldn’t be easier.

It’s easy to make this gluten-free, vegetarian and even vegan (make sure you omit the cheese, you could add a spoon of nutritional yeast flakes in its place).

Cook 75g pasta per person, this sauce will serve a minimum of two people but could stretch to four. Increase the quantities of sausage/fennel/chilli/cheese if you’re cooking for more than four.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

6 good quality raw sausages, cut into rounds about 1.5cm thick (gluten-free/vegetarian if required)

1 heaped tsp fennel seeds

Chilli flakes

2-3 handfuls of frozen peas/petit pois

Grated Italian hard cheese (Parmesan/Pecorino Romano/Grana Padano)

75g dried pasta per person (gluten-free if required)

Step 1: Begin by cooking your pasta according to the packet instructions.

Step 2: Meanwhile set a frying pan on a medium high heat and add a little olive oil and the sausage pieces, cook, moving them around the pan until they are coloured nicely and nearly cooked through (6-7 minutes). Next add in the frozen peas along with the fennel seeds and chilli flakes (I added a large pinch of chilli but do this to taste, if you don’t like it spicy, replace with a grind of black pepper). Then after a minute or so add a splash of the pasta cooking water (or even better a splash of white wine) to the pan. Keep everything moving for the next 3 minutes.

Step 3: Add the cooked pasta to the pan of sausage and peas, along with a ladleful of the pasta water. Add in roughly 3 tablespoons of grated cheese and constantly mix so that it all becomes emulsified and glossy. Serve immediately.