Pasta with Italian sausage, fennel and cream

Name: Pasta with Italian sausage, fennel and cream
Total time: 900 s
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 5 Italian sausages, casings removed and cut into 1/4 in rounds; 16 oz dry pasta (ideally penne, but I only had linguine); 1 bulb fennel, chopped (reserve the fronds for garnish); 1 large shallot, chopped; 3 cloves garlic, chopped; Juice of 1/2 lemon; 1 tbsp butter; 1/2 cup heavy cream

Robert Gonzal @robert

Vancouver BC

In my opinion, fennel is one of the most criminally underused vegetables. Maybe it's because it's not an everyday vegetable people are familiar with. Case in point, when my 90 year old grandmother saw the fennel bulb I'd left standing on the counter, she asked if it was a bonsai tree. Whatever the reason, when cooked properly fennel is a crunchy, sweet, and utterly delicious addition to a dish. In this recipe, fennel co-stars with Italian sausage to create a satisfying bowl of pasta.
#savory

Robert Gonzal @robert

Saved

Ingredients

15 minutes

4 to 6 servings

5Italian sausages, casings removed and cut into 1/4 in rounds
16 ozdry pasta (ideally penne, but I only had linguine)
1bulb fennel, chopped (reserve the fronds for garnish)
1large shallot, chopped
3 clovesgarlic, chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbspbutter
1/2 cupheavy cream

Saved

Steps

15 minutes

1

Put a large pot of salted water on high heat. Put a large non-stick pan on medium-high heat. Add the Italian sausages to the pan (no oil needed, they'll release oil as they cook). Fry until the sausages start to brown. If your pot of water is boiling by this point, drop in the pasta.
2

Add the fennel to the pan of sausages and fry for 2 minutes. Add the shallot and garlic and fry another 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice and a couple of splashes of pasta cooking water and turn the heat down to low.
3

Stir the butter into the sauce until it melts, then add the cream. Add salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste.
4

When the pasta is a minute from done, drag it into the pan of sauce. Toss everything together. Add pasta cooking water as needed to loosen the noodles. Serve with a garnish of the fennel fronds and freshly grated parmesan.