I am going on a vacation with my husband in one week and when we are on vacation he is kind of stuck doing whatever I want because I am the one who obsesses, plans and reads the guidebook cover to cover. So, in honor of his patience and forbearance, I am going to highlight his favorite meal of 2013 for this week’s post. We ate this New Year’s Eve in Chicago as part of my brother’s attempt to be our Italian grandma with recipes from the Frankies Spuntino Cook book
, so just in time for it to be Cory’s favorite meal of 2013.
This pasta is mouth watering delicious because you use simple but quality ingredients. You brown butter, toast up some sage and sausage and combine it with the best pasta that you can find. I feel like a real chef cooking up this meal, like I should be working in a restaurant. Cory wanted to eat this for weeks, he kept asking me to buy the ingredients at bad times, like right after I had gone to the grocery store or after I had already planned Sunday dinner. So, he took things into his own hands, invited his parents to dinner and insisted that he should plan and prepare the menu. I don’t fight offers like that.
I think of sausage as kind of a guy food, maybe this is sexist or something, but this sausage in this meal is delicious. (Turns out sausage is a guy food. I was reading the intro to this recipe in the cookbook and the authors said that this sausage dish is often ordered by the man on the first date while the woman chooses ravioli.)
Anyway, boy food or not, my kids loved it. And I loved it too. We made two versions one with medium sausage for Grandma and our two-year old and one with hot Italian sausage for the rest of us.
This recipe is a nice change from the usual tomato based or veggie based pasta and one that I think would be great for Father’s day or your husband’s birthday or maybe a first date?
What you need:
1 pound hot Italian Sausage
7 tablespoons unsalted butter
8-10 sage leaves
Freshly ground white pepper
1 pound high quality pasta (Gluten free if you want this GF)
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
Prepping the sausage in this recipe takes two steps. First you need to precook the sausage so it can be cut into coins. This way more of the sausage gets browned and it is just better that way.
Start water boiling in a large pot for your pasta. Salt it generously.
Put your sausages in a large saute´pan with 1/2 inch of water and cook over medium heat. After about 10 minutes, flip the sausages and continue to simmer for five minutes more. After about 15 minutes the sausages should be cooked through. Remove the sausages and place on a cutting board. Slice in coins close to 1/2 of an inch.
Now brown your sausages. Add one tablespoon of butter to your pan and turn up the heat to medium-high. Brown the sausage on the first side until they are deeply browned. Don’t turn them or mess with them, just let them sit and brown. Once the first side is brown, flip and brown the second side. Remove from the heat and let them drain on a plate covered with a paper towel. Remove the pan from the burner until you are ready to start cooking in it again.
Lower the pan heat to medium.
This is where you are going to brown your butter, so you need to be careful and pay attention. Cut the remaining seven tablespoons butter into inch segments. Add the seven tablespoons of butter, the sage leaves and a pinch of white pepper to the pan. Stir the butter and scrap at the browned bits of sausage on the pan. Continue to stir. The butter should foam, then after another couple of minutes start taking on a golden color then after minute or two turn brown. Remove the butter from heat. (When you are browning butter the milk solids in the butter are separating from the water in the butter. The milk solids are being exposed to heat and start to brown. Brown butter can quickly turn black. Watch your pan!) Pour your butter sauce in a bowl with the sausage. You do want to pour the butter out of the pan, so it will stop cooking and not burn after you have browned it.
At this point you should start your pasta cooking in the boiling water in the big pot on the stove according to package directions. Once you have drained the pasta, add it to the bowl with the butter sauce. Top with the Romano. Divide amongst your plates and top with a few leaves of parsley.
- 1 pound hot Italian Sausage
- 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8-10 sage leaves
- Freshly ground white pepper
- 1 pound high quality pasta (Gluten free if you want this GF)
- 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano
- ½ cup flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
- Prepping the sausage in this recipe takes two steps. First you need to precook the sausage so it can be cut into coins. This way more of the sausage gets browned and it is just better that way.
- Start water boiling in a large pot for your pasta. Salt it generously.
- Put your sausages in a large saute´pan with ½ inch of water and cook over medium heat. After about 10 minutes, flip the sausages and continue to simmer for five minutes more. After about 15 minutes the sausages should be cooked through. Remove the sausages and place on a cutting board. Slice in coins close to ½ of an inch.
- Now brown your sausages. Add one tablespoon of butter to your pan and turn up the heat to medium-high. Brown the sausage on the first side until they are deeply browned. Don't turn them or mess with them, just let them sit and brown. Once the first side is brown, flip and brown the second side. Remove from the heat and let them drain on a plate covered with a paper towel. Remove the pan from the burner until you are ready to start cooking in it again.
- Lower the pan heat to medium.
- This is where you are going to brown your butter, so you need to be careful and pay attention. Cut the remaining seven tablespoons butter into inch segments. Add the seven tablespoons of butter, the sage leaves and a pinch of white pepper to the pan. Stir the butter and scrap at the browned bits of sausage on the pan. Continue to stir. The butter should foam, then after another couple of minutes start taking on a golden color then after minute or two turn brown. Remove the butter from heat. (When you are browning butter the milk solids in the butter are separating from the water in the butter. The milk solids are being exposed to heat and start to brown. Brown butter can quickly turn black. Watch your pan!) Pour your butter sauce in a bowl with the sausage.
- At this point you should start your pasta cooking in the boiling water in the big pot on the stove according to package directions. Once you have drained the pasta, add it to the bowl with the butter sauce. Top with the Romano. Divide amongst your plates and top with a few leaves of parsley.
I used to live down rne street from their restaurant in Brooklyn. This was my favorite dish!
Becky – I am jealous. My brother lives in New York and I can’t wait to visit him and eat at Frankies.