Sausage fusilli

This recipe was inspired by Jamie Oliver's "Proper blokes' sausage fusilli", we made a few changes to the original recipe in that we used more sausage per person and less pasta and fresh chilli instead and I had powdered spices not whole seeds. I was a bit worried since I am quite used to "saucy" pastas, but this was really really good - so good I'm trying to resist making it for the second time in one week! Jamie recommends good quality sausages and I cannot agree more - you would lose the texture and flavour of the dish if you buy cheap sausages. I used Cumberland sausages and they were fantastic.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 and a bit tsp ground fennel
• 1 finely chopped red chilli
• olive oil
• 400g good-quality Cumberland sausages
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• a wineglass of white wine
• zest and juice of 1 lemon (you shouldn't need all of it)
• 200g good-quality fusilli or penne
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a couple of knobs of butter
• a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or pecorino or something similar), plus extra for serving
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped

Method

1. Heat a splash of olive oil in a frying pan/wok.
2. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins and put into the pan, and use a wooden spoon or something to break it up and then fry for a few minutes until the meat starts to colour
3. Carry on trying to break up the large lumps of sausage - it will start to look like mince.
4. Add the fennel and chillis to the sausage meat and cook on a medium heat for around 10 minutes until the meat becomes crisp, golden brown and a little bit caramelized.
5. Put on a pan of salted boiling water for the pasta.
6. Stir in the oregano, pour in the white wine and allow it to reduce by half.
7. Add the lemon zest and juice - but be gentle with the lemon as I found that all the juice made the sauce a bit too lemony.
8. Turn the heat down to low on the sausage meat while you cook the pasta according to the instructions.
9. When the pasta is ready, take about 200 ml of the cooking water and put it aside and then drain the pasta.
10. Add the pasta to the sausage meat and stir to coat, add the butter, parmesan, parsley and a few spoonfuls of the pasta cooking water usntil the sauce has loosed up a little.
11. Season to taste and serve, remembering to sprinkle some of the cheese on the top.

Hyvää Ruokahalua!