50 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 6
About the recipe
Sausage pasta is a firm favourite in the Oliver household. I’ve got this easy recipe for a quick sausage ragù, where we stretch the meat further by squeezing the sausagemeat out of the skins, and bump it up with River’s favourite, chickpeas.
Ingredients
4 higher-welfare pork sausages or veggie sausages
4 sprigs of rosemary or 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
320g fresh or frozen chopped mixed onion, carrot & celery
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
2 x 400g tins of quality plum tomatoes
450g pasta shells
optional: Parmesan cheese, for grating
Top Tip
Quick enough to make to order, this is also a great one to batch up and stash in the fridge or freezer for busy weeknights, ready to enjoy with pasta, a jacket potato or even a hunk of crusty bread.
Method
- Place a large shallow casserole pan on a medium-high heat. Squeeze the sausage meat out of the skins into the pan, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and fry until lightly golden, stirring regularly. (If using veggie sausages, roughly slice and fry in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until golden and crispy.)
- Pick and roughly chop the rosemary leaves and peel and finely slice the garlic. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil into the pan then add the chopped mixed veg, rosemary and garlic. Season to perfection, then mash everything together with a masher and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
- Pour in the chickpeas, juice and all, and scrunch in the tomatoes along with 1 tin’s worth of water, mashing everything up until fine. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a medium-low heat and simmer for 30 minutes, until thick and delicious, mashing everything up with a potato masher.
- When the sauce has around 12 minutes remaining, cook the pasta in a pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving a mugful of the starchy cooking water. Toss the cooked pasta into the sauce, adding splashes of the water to loosen if needed, then divide between bowls. Grate over a little Parmesan and drizzle with a little olive oil, if you like, and serve.
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