This is the most deliciously moreish recipe for Creamy Sausage Pasta. Also known as Pasta Alla Norcina, it has caramelised fennel sausages, white wine, cream and garlic, all tossed into some pasta to make the best, crowd-pleasing pasta.
Pasta Alla Norcina is originally from a region called Umbria, right in the middle of Italy. It’s from an old town called Norcia and originally used black truffle shavings. Since most people don’t have truffles lying around on a weeknight, this creamy sausage pasta recipe doesn’t use it but if you were feeling fancy, a drizzle of truffle oil would be delicious.
Only six ingredients in this creamy sausage pasta
Garlic (use fresh garlic, finely chopped)
Fennel flavoured pork sausage (Italian sausages are typically seasoned with fennel and it adds so much flavour to this simple creamy pasta)
White wine (adds sharpness that is hard to recreate elsewhere)
Single cream (wouldn’t be a creamy sausage pasta without cream. Use single cream ideally but double cream would work in a pinch)
Rigatoni (a short tubular pasta works well here as the creamy sausage sauce ends up sitting inside some of the pasta tubes so you get a bit of everything in one bite)
Pecorino Romano (made from sheep’s milk, pecorino isn’t dissimilar to parmesan but it is a bit funkier and works well here. Use parmesan if you can’t find pecorino)
Frequently Asked Questions
If you can’t find fennel sausages, add a teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds to the pan at the same time as the garlic and use classic pork sausages. Try to use sausages with high pork content since they are the star of this dish.
I would really recommend the wine here, it cooks out so it doesn’t have a strong alcohol taste and it really rounds out the dish. If you use 150ml here, you’ll have a few glasses left in the bottle to have with dinner. If you can’t get through a full bottle of wine, I pour anything left over into an ice cube tray or a sandwich bag and freeze it. I then throw it into the pan when I next need wine to cook with.
If you cannot use wine, use some chicken stock and a good tablespoon of lemon juice or white wine vinegar.
Other pasta recipes you might like
Creamy Lemon Pasta
Creamy Boursin & Artichoke Pasta
Tomato & Nduja Pasta
Very Green Pasta
Brown Butter Gnocchi
Creamy Sausage Pasta
This creamy sausage pasta really makes the fennel sausages the star of the show so use the best sausages you can get your hands on with a high pork content.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 2
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 400g fennel flavoured pork sausage (usually around 6 sausages)
- 150ml white wine
- 150ml single cream
- 200g rigatoni
- 120g pecorino Romano
- Salt & black pepper
Instructions
- Crumble the sausage meat into the olive oil and break it up as you brown it, don’t worry if it catches the bottom of the pan - those gnarly caramelised bits add flavour.
- Add the chopped garlic and an extra splash of olive oil.
- When the sausage is well coloured, deglaze the pan by adding the white wine. Use a wooden spoon to get all the bits off the bottom of the pan as that is all great flavour.
- Meanwhile cook your pasta in salted water until al dente. Add a cup full of pasta water to the sauce and half of the cheese, before stirring through the cream.
- Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and toss really well to coat all the pieces, add more pecorino and toss again. Taste and season.
- Serve with more pecorino and lots of black pepper
Notes
If you can't find fennel sausages, add a teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds when adding the garlic.
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