Fennel Sausage, Gochujang and Vodka Paccheri
This dish is an inspired bringing together of Italian and Korean ingredients. The sauce is rich and meaty, with a lovely spice from the gochujang. Finish off with a pangrattato topping for an added crunch.
Introduction
One of the leitmotifs of my cooking is fennel seeds – a signature ingredient used in both Punjabi and Italian cuisines – in almost everything. I adore the punchy lemony-anise hit they bring to any dish, sweet and savoury. For this reason my usually sparse refrigerator is rarely without Italian fennel sausages – grilled whole to a blackened char for the ultimate sarnies, or split open to sizzle in a pan for dreamy fennel sausage ragus. The spicy-savouriness of gochujang is the perfect note to add to this aniseedy chord, amped up further by the taste-magnifying effects of vodka. With flavours this loud, only very gigantic pasta – like satisfyingly huge paccheri – will do. The bigger the better
Ingredients
| 2 tbsp | olive oil |
| 1 large | red onion, finely chopped |
| 2 tsp | fennel seeds, crushed |
| 350g (12oz) | fennel sausages, cases removed |
| 2 tbsp | gochujang |
| 200g (7oz) | Tenderstem broccoli, ends trimmed |
| 2 tbsp | tomato purée (paste) |
| 4 tbsp | vodka |
| 3 tbsp | balsamic vinegar |
| 1 tbsp | caster (superfine) sugar |
| 200g (7oz) | baby plum tomatoes, halved |
| 125g (4½oz) | soured cream |
| 200g (7oz) | paccheri or rigatoni |
| fine sea salt | |
| For the pangrattato topping: | |
|---|---|
| 35g (1¼oz) | butter |
| 2 | garlic cloves, crushed to a paste |
| 2 tsp | herbes de Provence |
| 50g (1¾oz) | panko breadcrumbs |
| 2 tbsp | finely grated parmesan |
Method
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, then gently fry the onion with a pinch of salt over a medium heat for 4 minutes. Next add the fennel seeds and sausage meat, and cook for 5 minutes until the meat starts to take on a little colour. Stir in the gochujang and cook for another minute.
Next, add the broccoli and 1¼ teaspoons of salt, cooking for 4 minutes until tender. Now stir in the tomato purée, vodka, balsamic vinegar and sugar, combining well.
Add the plum tomatoes, cover with a lid and cook over a medium heat for 5–6 minutes until they start to collapse into the sauce. Finally, stir through the soured cream, and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for 30 minutes to let the flavours develop.
Meanwhile, make a crunchy pangrattato topping. Melt the butter in a frying pan, then add the garlic and dried herbs and fry for 1 minute. Add the breadcrumbs and parmesan, and cook over a medium–high heat for 5 minutes until toasty and golden. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool completely and crisp up further.
Cook the pasta in a large pan of well-salted boiling water following the packet instructions. Drain, reserving a little of the pasta water.
Reheat the sausage sauce over a low heat, adding a little of the cooking water if needed, then stir through the pasta. Serve in large bowls with a very generous sprinkling of the crunchy pangrattato on top
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