Turn up the heat in your kitchen by making this flavoursome spicy sausage pasta with mushrooms, baby spinach, wine and lots of chillies!
Orecchiette, sausages and lots of chillies
It amazes me how many types of dried pasta is available, and just when I thought I’ve seen them all another one pops up. I love experimenting with all sorts of pasta shapes and sizes, it’s wonderful how different kinds of pasta can transform the look and taste of a dish.
Even though I adore variety, I’m actually boring when it comes to pasta. I tend to reach for spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine when cooking. In saying that, I have quite a few varieties of pasta in the pantry. My neglected box of Orecchiette has been in my pantry for a while and I’ve been meaning to use it.
My husband, Tomasi, recently brought home some beautiful Italian sausages from our local butcher home. This was perfect, just in time for my very spicy sausage pasta with Orecchiette.
Cute but sophisticated, this is how I would describe Orecchiette. Who can resist this little dome-shaped pasta?
What makes it even more irresistible is it’s cooked with flavoursome Italian sausages, chillies, garlic, wine, mushrooms, spinach, chicken stock and parmesan cheese. With this ingredients list, it promises flavour flavour flavour!
Pour yourself a chilled glass of wine, do a little dance and make this dish! you definitely won’t regret it.
Things are getting spicy over here!
Do you love spicy food? That’s probably a silly question as you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.
If I could add chillies to every dish I made I probably would! I’m so crazy about chillies that I don’t think I could be with someone that can’t eat spicy food. Lucky for me, Tomasi, loves spicy food, so much that he actually has a higher heat tolerance than I do. He is a crazy dude because I can take heat quite well!
The challenge that I face now is I can’t put chillies in my dishes anymore as I don’t think my 18- month-old toddler, Kai, will appreciate it. He doesn’t even like tomato sauce (ketchup) so there’s no way he’ll eat anything spicy. Don’t worry I have a plan though, so instead of cooking two meals when I want to eat spicy food I’ll be force-feeding him chillies when he turns two. Before someone calls Child Services on me, I’m so kidding! I’m not as cruel as my own mum!
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My sister and I found out how my mum weaned us from breast milk. She told us that she would rub fresh chilli juice on herself and that when we went to feed we would cough our lungs out. We were horrified to hear this but she thought it was hilarious and looked proud even. She said it served us right for biting the daylights out of her. Hmmm, I wonder if this is the reason why I am so addicted to chillies?
The pasta dish has both dried chilli and fresh chilli, dried for the smoky flavour and the chilli one for extra heat because we like things hot and spicy here!
Spicy Sausage Pasta
What I love about this dish it’s that it gives us another tasty way to enjoy pasta as it’s neither a red or white sauce.
This spicy sausage pasta is cooked in olive oil, wine, stock and pasta water. The rest of the flavour comes from the garlic, chilli and the tasty spiced Italian sausage. Although there’s fennel in the sausage I added more because I love how fennel adds more depth to the dish. If you’re not a fan of fennel leave it out or swap it with your favourite herbs, such as dried oregano or parsley.
Most sausage and pasta recipes call for the casing of the sausages to be removed. This way the sausages can be cooked the same way as ground meat. I like to keep mine sausage-like and cooked in chunky slices but of course if you prefer to remove the casing you can.
During my uni days, I worked for a pizzeria and pasta restaurant as previously discussed in my FETTUCCINE BOSCAIOLA recipe post. During this time I learned that reserving pasta water and adding it to the dish helps the pasta sauce cling onto the pasta due to the starch in the water. It also helps loosen the pasta if it’s a little dry whilst cooking.
Ingredients for Spicy Sausage Pasta
Italian sausage is a must in this dish and shouldn’t be substituted for any other sausages. It’s loaded with flavour as the pork is marinated with garlic, onion, paprika, chilli flakes, fennel and other herbs and spices. It’s definitely worth buying some good quality raw Italian sausages for this dish.
Pasta – Any variety of dried pasta can be used. Cook the pasta as per the instructions but don’t overcook the pasta as it should be ‘al dente’ which means the pasta should still be firm when bitten. Before draining the pasta reserve half a cup of the pasta water to add to the dish later.
Chillies – I used both fresh and dried chillies. The dry chillies provide a smokey flavour and the fresh one adds heat. You may opt to leave the fresh chilli out if you prefer this dish to be less spicy.
Dry white wine is lower in sugar levels than other varieties. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio are popular dry white wine varieties.
How to make Spicy Sausage Pasta
Step by step guide with photos
Cook the pasta as per the instructions but make sure not to overcook it. Scoop out half a cup of pasta water before draining it from the pasta and set aside.
Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a large deep frying pan on medium to high heat. Add in the sausages and cook to sear only, they don’t need to be cooked through just firm enough to hold their shape. Remove the sausages onto a chopping board and use a sharp knife with tongs to slice the sausages (roughly 0.5cm in thickness).
In the same frying pan, add in the remaining oil and heat it up on medium to high heat. Add in the sliced sausages and cook until they’ve browned nicely. Move the sausages to the side of the pan and add in the butter, once it. has melted add in the mushrooms and stir occasionally until the mushrooms are golden. Add in the garlic, onion, fennel seeds, dried and fresh chillies and stir quickly but gently for 2 minutes.
Throw everything into the pan!
Pour in the wine and stir gently until the alcohol smell disappears. Add in the stock and spinach, cook until the spinach has wilted. Stir in the pasta and cook for 5 minutes or until heated through, if the pasta feels dry add in a few tablespoons or of the reserved pasta water. Taste the pasta and season with salt and pepper if needed. Take the pan off the heat and add in the parmesan and stir through. Serve and garnish with more grated cheese on top.
Leftovers – As this dish is not saucy, the pasta may dry up a little when stored. Keep it in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days.
If you love spicy food as much as I do check out the delicious and easy Honey Sriracha Chicken or the Asian inspired Chilli Lime and Ginger Chicken
Cooking measurements are in Australian standard spoon and cup measurements.
A Third-Party Application calculated the calories and nutritional information. Please use this as an approximate guide only.
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Cheers (I’ll drink to that) – Cat Tre
SPICY SAUSAGE PASTA
Ingredients
- 300 gm dried pasta (NOTE 1)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 500 gm Italian sausages (NOTE 2)
- 18 gm butter (1 tbsp)
- 6 medium mushrooms
- 3 cloves garlic
- ½ small onion
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp chilli flakes (NOTE 3)
- 2 small red chillies (NOTE 3)
- ¼ cup white wine (NOTE 4)
- ½ cup reduced-salt chicken stock
- 2 cup packed baby spinach
- ¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese (and extra for topping)
- salt and pepper to season
Instructions
- Cook the pasta as per the instructions but make sure not to overcook it. Scoop out half a cup of pasta water before draining it from the pasta and set aside.
- Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a large deep frying pan on medium to high heat. Add in the sausages and cook to sear only, they don't need to be cooked through just firm enough to hold their shape. Remove the sausages onto a chopping board and use a sharp knife with tongs to slice the sausages (roughly 0.5cm in thickness).
- In the same frying pan, add in the remaining oil and heat it up on medium to high heat. Add in the sliced sausages and cook until they've browned nicely. Move the sausages to the side of the pan and add in the butter, once it. has melted add in the mushrooms and stir occasionally until the mushrooms are golden. Add in the garlic, onion, fennel seeds, dried and fresh chillies and stir quickly but gently for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the wine and stir gently until the alcohol smell disappears. Add in the stock and spinach, cook until the spinach has wilted. Stir in the pasta and cook for 5 minutes or until heated through, if the pasta feels dry add in a few tablespoons or of the reserved pasta water. Taste the pasta and season with salt and pepper if needed. Take the pan off the heat and add in the parmesan and stir through. Serve and garnish with more grated cheese on top.
