A few years ago, I made this salsiccia pasta for the first time, and since then we’ve had to have it at least every few months because it is so delicious – and – easy to make.

What you need for approximately four persons:

• 600 grams of salsiccia sausages
• 500 grams of good quality tomatoes (you can use crushed, but I usually don’t)
• 1 onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1 deciliter white wine
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1 deciliter full fat cream
• 1 tablespoon chili flakes (or less if you don’t want it spicy)
• Pecorino or parmesan cheese
• Fresh parsley, finely chopped
• Tagliatelle, mafaldine or pappardelle pasta (or any pasta you’d rather use)
• Olive oil for frying

How to cook it

1. Chop garlic and onion finely. Remove and discard casings from the sausages, we’re using the filling as you would minced meat. Chop the tomatoes.

2. Heat olive oil in a pot. Fry the salsiccia and meanwhile try to chop it up to a ’crumble’ – again think minced meat. When salsiccia is starting to brown, lower heat a bit and add tomato puree. Make sure to fry the tomato puree for at least 30 seconds to it gets a little bit toasted. Then add garlic, onion and chilli flakes. Fry a bit more until it’s starting to soften.

3. Add chopped tomatoes, let fry a little bit together with the other ingredients. Stirr them in so everything mixes nicely.

4. Add white wine and water to it covers everyhing. Cover with a lid and slowly simmer for 1-3 hours. About 20 minutes before serving, add the cream and let reduce without lid on. I usually do not need any salt as salsiccias are salty, but taste and add some if needed.

5. Cook the pasta in salted water until ’al dente’, reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid.

6. Mix the salsiccia sauce with the cooked pasta in the pot. Add some cooking water to make it ’creamier’ while continuosly stirring, this should take around a minute.

7. Serve with grated pecorino cheese, finely chopped parsley and a glass of wine. I think rosé usually goes quite well with this.