This is a quick pasta supper for a cool Fall evening. One of Britian’s best loved cookery authors, Nigel Slater puts together spicy sausage, basil and a creamy mustard sauce in a recipe you will have ready in 20 minutes. Nigel claims in his award-winning autobiography “Toast -the Story of a Boy’s Hunger”,(now a BBC film) that he used food to compete with his step-mother Dorothy (who had been the family’s cleaning lady when his mother died) for this Father’s attention. The biggest battle was over lemon meringue pie, his father’s favorite. Dorothy refused to divulge her recipe, so he launched a stealth campaign which included counting the eggs shells in the trash to see how many she used.
I love his words about the value of cooking with love….”The simple act of making someone something to eat, even a bowl of soup or a loaf of bread, has a many-layered meaning. It suggests an act of protection and caring, of generosity and intimacy. It is in itself a sign of respect.”
1 pound penne or medium shell pasta
1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
8 hot Italian sausages, meat removed from casings and crumbled (about 1 1/2 pounds)
3/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 Tbs. grainy mustard
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 cup thinly sliced basil
Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water unti al dente; drain. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large deep skillet. Add the sausage meat and brown over moderately high heat, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and simmer, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom, until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the cream, mustard and crushed red pepper and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the pasta and basil and toss to coat. Serve at once. Serves 4.
Note: I found all hot sausage too spicy for our taste, so used half sweet the next time. Forgive me Nigel, but I also think I improved the dish by sauteeing a chopped onion and a couple of cloves of minced garlic along with the sausages; it added a flavor boost. Half and half works fine instead of heavy cream and lots of Parmesan is called for!
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