It’s been quite a while since MM and I have been able to travel farther than about 90 minutes from our house. Neither of us is happy about that, so any time I can attempt to replicate food we have when out of the country helps. You know, Bolognese sauce, bread with olive oil, the Woodsman pasta, and now, Pasta all Norcina!
Pasta alla Norcina
Ingredients
Sausage Mixture
- 12 oz plain pork sausage such as Usinger's, removed from casings
- 1 large garlic clove minced
- 1½ tsp kosher salt
- ¾ tsp ground black pepper
- pinch freshly grated nutmeg
- 2 Tbsp dry white wine chilled
Pasta
- 2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 recipe sausage mixture (above)
- 1 small yellow onion finely chopped
- ½ c dry white wine
- 1 c heavy cream
- Kosher salt and ground black pepper
- 12 oz dried, short, tubular pasta such as penne or cavatappi
- 1½ oz finely grated Pecorino Romano plus extra for serving
- freshly grated nutmeg for serving
Instructions
For Sausage Mixture
- In a medium bowl, combine sausage, garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then stir with a wooden spoon to evenly distribute the seasoning. Add 2 Tbsp chilled wine, and stir and press against the bowl until wine is incorporated and mixture becomes tacky, about 2 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour, or up to 2 days.
For Pasta
- Fill a pot with water, and set over medium heat to prepare to cook the pasta, following package instructions. (You'll add the pasta to the water around the same time that you add the cream to the sauce mixture.)
- Remove sausage mixture from the refrigerator, and with clean hands, form four ½-inch thick patties. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat, until shimmering, then add sausage patties. Cook until bottom side is light golden brown, about 3 minutes. Using a thin spatula, turn patties over, leaving room in the center of the skillet. Add the onion, lower heat to medium, and cook, using a wooden spoon to crumble the sausage (shoot for ½- to 1-inch pieces), until sausage is just cooked through, and onion is softened – about 2 minutes.
- Increase heat to medium-high and add wine. Bring to a simmer, and cook, swirling pan and deglazing the bottom with the wooden spoon. Simmer until wine is reduced by roughly half (about 30 seconds).
- Add cream, bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring frequently to keep cream from scorching, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and reduce heat to lowest setting to keep sauce warm and prevent it from over-reducing.
- Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water, as instructed on the package, until shy of al dente (about 2 minutes less than the package directions). Use a spider skimmer to transfer the pasta to the sauce, along with the water clinging to the pasta. Reserve about ½ c of the pasta water.
- Increase heat to high and cook, tossing pasta and sauce rapidly, until pasta is al dente, and the sauce has thickened. It should coat noodles and pool around edges of the pan in about 2 minutes. Add pasta cooking water as needed to achieve desired consistency.
- Remove from heat, then add Pecorino Romano, stirring rapidly to incorporate. Divide between warmed serving bowls, top each portion with black pepper, grated nutmeg, and more cheese. Serve hot.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to any of you that MM and I truly enjoy traveling to Rome. There’s something about wandering the streets, turning a corner and seeing a structure that has been around for a millennia or two, sitting outside of a café with a nice house wine (red for him, white for me) and watching the world pass by.
And while the old center of town is filled with touristy kinds of restaurants – not the highest rated by the locals – the food is really incomparable. There’s something about the texture and taste of the pasta, the smell of the cheese, the olive oil…
Serious Eats said that this was a creamy, hearty Umbrian pasta, and since it was interesting to consider making my own sausage, and seemed relatively easy, I was game. I ended up with pork sausage from the grocery store instead of the coarsely ground pork, but used the sausage mixture method anyway, with really good results – MM said it was especially tasty. And it was a really, really easy recipe overall.
As soon as the sausage hit the oil, I started smelling how good this was going to be. Adding the wine and the cream had me walking down the streets of Rome. Watching the sauce coat the pasta, stirring the Pecorino Romano into the dish, and all of a sudden, I was sitting at that café in the evening, smelling the various meals around me, twirling my fork in a sumptuous dish of pasta and sauce, sipping on that house wine, and enjoying the company of my most favorite traveling partner.
I miss Rome. I miss Italy. I miss traveling.
But I’m satisfied that I can make a meal like this, then share it and some wine, with my favorite person, and remember that feeling literally any time I want.