I'm having a moment with carbs. Well, if you consider an entire month a time frame, then that's really the gist of it. Today this Ricotta and Sausage Pasta is front stage and it's a winner!
Anytime you combine pasta, sausage, a white wine and butter sauce and some sort of cheese, it's basically a guaranteed success am I right? There really isn't anything bad that could come of that combination - rather it's just a bowl of everything you ever wanted in life.
By now, it's a well known fact that for the first 17 years of my life I lived on pasta and grilled cheese. Not much has changed, as I'm pretty sure I'd be just fine if that were the case now. But I like to mix things up every once in a while and jazz up my staples. And if you're living in a pasta-centric house like me, I can promise you that you'll love this easy pasta dinner! (Psst... Another easy pasta recipe coming atcha, my delicious Spaghetti Carbonara and Sausage and Leek Orecchiette... You have to try it!) Adam made it for me YEARS ago when we were working on a job in Minnesota! I have literally zero recollection of where the base recipe came from but it's incredible.
Need a few more sausage-y recipes to complete your fall cooking plans - I've got ya covered:
- Sausage Ragu Polenta Bowls
- Tortellini with Sausage and Mascarpone
- Detroit Style Fennel Sausage Pizza
- Broccolini Sausage Pizza
- Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage
- Sausage and Leek Pasta
- Three Cheese Pesto Pasta Bake
- Sausage Kale and Bean Pasta
- Rigatoni with Broccolini and Sausage
Ricotta and Sausage Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb pappardelle pasta
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound Italian fennel sausage, casings removed
- 1 fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
- 2 leeks, halved, trimmed, white parts only, and sliced
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup fresh ricotta
- ¼ cup torn fresh flat-leaf parsley
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
To make the sauce:
- Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Break the sausage into small pieces and add to the pan along with the fennel and leeks. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to continue to break up the sausage into bite sized pieces. Add the wine, shallots, garlic and thyme. Cook until the wine is reduced by about half, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken broth and butter and continue cooking for 3 to 5 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half.
Meanwhile
- While the sauce is reducing, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta, reserving ¼ cup of the cooking water. Add the pasta water and the pasta to the sauté pan with the sauce. Toss until the sauce coats the pasta, about 30 seconds.
- Transfer to a large serving bowl, top with dollops of the ricotta and the parsley and toss to combine. Sprinkle the Parmesan on top and serve.
So good! I've only recently discovered fennel and it's quickly becoming a favorite flavor in pasta dishes. And any dish with fresh ricotta is incapable of being bad. This recipe was a big hit!
Yum! We loved this. I had some spicy Italian sausage I needed to use up so we used that instead of the fennel sausage, but it was still excellent. This would also work great with broken lasagna noodles.
Fennel bulbs can be hard for me to track down, what would be a good substitute for them?
leeks!!
Look for fennel or anise seed in the spice section. Add a teaspoon or so of the seeds, crushed, along with some extra leeks or sweet onion.
I just made this---soooo yummy!!
Made it! Added mushrooms (because when I see white wine sauce, I just have to). It was delish!!!! You are correct, can't go wrong with cheese, pasta, and butter!
In fact, this is going to the be on the menu for my supper club that I host this month. Well, at least a version of it - adding mushrooms and peas, without sausage so I can serve turkey meatballs as well, and Chrissy Teigan's take on caprese salad to go with! Since this pasta recipe is light and without heavy cream, I hope it will pair well with my meatballs that are served in crushed tomatoes. We'll see how it turns out.
I'll be living on this dish!!!
I love these kind of simple delicious dishes- so good!
Pasta is always a good choice to me, so this dish would be in my regular rotation!
One of our staples for the cold winters. we make it at least once a week.
Yummy!!!!!
We are pasta lovers and this sounds delicious!! Love all the flavors.
I had some ricotta I needed to use up, so I did search and decided to try this recipe. It is so yummy! We will definitely be making this again, even my 9 month old liked it
Sounds SO good. Must try this!
Yumm!! This looks like the perfect dinner when we are craving pasta! Great flavors!
Ingredients are so yummy! I can imagine this pasta is really yummy!
For some reason whenever I eat Pappardelle I tend to have two times the normal amount of pasta. It's just so easy to gobble up those beautiful big ribbons of noodle. Also the word noodle. NOODLE.