Morteau sausage pasta
This dish combines two of my favourite things, pasta and Morteau sausage. Morteau sausage is a French delicacy, for this recipe I’ve turned this gently smoked sausage into a lovely ragu, spiced with fennel and black peppercorns.
Sausage ragu (6 portions)
400g Morteau sausage
400g Pork belly (skin removed)
230ml White wine
Olive oil
115g Carrot (finely chopped)
90g Celery (finely chopped)
130g Onion (finely chopped)
115g Fennel (finely chopped)
20g Garlic (finely chopped)
2/3 Orange (unit, zest)
1 Bouquet garni
400ml White chicken stock
110g Mascarpone
Salt & pepper
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10g Black peppercorns (g)
1g Smoked chilli flakes (g)
ground Nutmeg (g)
10g Fennel seeds (g)
Boil the peppercorns in a small pan of water for 30 minutes to soften them, then drain and repeat twice. (1.5h in total) after cool down and chop into smaller pieces but not too fine. Cut the pork belly and Morteau sausage into smaller pieces and place in the freezer so they firm up before mincing. Mince the meat. Toast the chilli and fennel seeds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for a couple of minutes, then tip onto a plate immediately to stop the cooking.
Use a pestle and mortar, to grind to a powder. Then add this to the sausage meat and season with the nutmeg, salt & pepper. Heat a large pan you may have to do two/three batches as you don’t want the sausage meat to stew. Colour the meat until golden brown. Don’t rush this stage Then deglaze with a little wine and cook for a further 5 minutes. Transfer the meat to a container.
In the same pan, on a medium to low heat, add a glug of olive oil, the vegetables, garlic, orange zest, fresh herbs and whole peppercorns. Sweat down until the vegetables are soft – around 20 minutes. Add the sausage meat back to the pan and mix together. Add the rest of the white wine and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock, cover with a cartouche, and cook on a medium to low heat for 1 hour. Add the mascarpone to finish the ragu.
Pici pasta (6 portions)
200g Semolina flour
200g 00 flour
200ml Water
30ml Olive oil
Pinch salt
For the Pici weight out ingredients. Add flour and semolina to a mixing bowl, add in water, oil and salt, bring together until you have a shaggy dough, then turn out on to a work bench and knead until you have a smooth dough. Rest for at least 30mins in the fridge.
To make the pici, cut into 15g strips and roll the dough to roughly 20 cm lengths using both hands roll back and forth to stretch outwards on the bench. And cut in half so the pasta isn’t too long. Cook the pici in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes.
