Sausage and Vegetable Fusillata Casareccia

Photo: S. Samuels

I’ve been making versions of this dish for years, and you can use whatever pasta you like, though I would suggest a small to medium-sized shaped pasta that holds sauce really well.  Many times I’ll add a couple of different pastas to vary the presentation and texture of the dish, but any pastas such as orecchiette, campanelle, cappeliette, cavatelli, ditalini, ratielle, elbows, fusilli, gigli, all work well – whatever suits your fancy.

This was the first time I used fusillata casareccia, and I appreciated the way each short tubular pasta with an open side cradled the sauce, and it possessed a wonderful texture.  This is a hearty dish that sticks to your ribs, and to your hips and thighs if you eat too much – which is really tempting because it is so good!   This also works very well as a vegetarian dish – omit the sausage and use vegetable stock instead.

Sausage and Vegetable Fusillata Casareccia

• 4 cups chicken or beef stock
• 1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 orange bell pepper
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1 small jalapeno or chili pepper, minced (optional)
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 cups button, porcini, or baby portabella mushrooms
• 2 cups frozen peas (petite if possible)
• 2 cups baby spinach leaves
• 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• freshly ground black pepper
• kosher or sea salt
• 1 lb. fusillata casareccia, or preferred pasta

1. Clean, stem and seed peppers, and roughly cut into 1/4″ – 1/2″ pieces and place into bowl.  Chop onions and garlic into slightly smaller pieces and add to bowl.
2. Clean mushrooms with slightly moist towel to remove any dirt, and slice into rough pieces and add to bowl with peppers and onion.
3. Take ground sausage (or if in links squeeze out meat) and brown in @1″ size shapes in large saucepan on medium high heat with 1 tbsp. olive oil.  I usually use a teaspoon and drop the sausage as roughly shaped balls into the pan.  As with the vegetables, you’re not looking for uniform shapes as this is a rough-hewn peasant-inspired dish.  Brown the sausage pieces for @ 8-10 minutes until they form a dark crust on all sides, and don’t worry if a fond is created in the bottom of the pan – you want this, as when it dissipates into the sauce it will create great flavor.  Remove sausage and set aside.
4. In the same pan, turn down the heat to medium and add the peppers, onions, garlic, mushrooms, thyme and red pepper flakes.  If you are concerned that it might be too spicy, just omit the red pepper flakes and jalapeno or chili peppers.   Season with salt and pepper to taste.  There should still be oil left in the pan from the sausage, but feel free to add another tbsp. or so if needed.  As the vegetables saute, they’ll release some of their liquid, and use that to scrape the fond in the pan into the vegetable mix.  If your preference is to have a bit of crunch to your vegetables, take them out after @ 5 minutes or while the vegetables are still firm, and add to the sausage.  My preference for this dish is to brown the peppers and onions.  As they caramelize, they’ll add a wonderful sweetness to the dish, though they will be soft and blend into the background of the dish.
5. Once you’ve taken out the vegetables, add the beef or chicken stock to the same pan and bring to a boil, and reduce liquid to about 1/3 of original amount., which should be @ 12-15 minutes.  This will intensify the flavor and thicken into a gravy-like consistency. I tend to use beef stock if I want to make a heartier dish, and chicken stock if I want it a bit lighter.
6. In separate pot, bring salted water to a boil and add pasta – follow directions on pasta packaging regarding water amount and timing to cook about 3/4 of the way to al dente (firm to the tooth).  Strain pasta from water and add into saucepan with reduced stock  and finish cooking pasta to al dente.
7. After adding the pasta, add sausage and vegetable mix, folding  everything every minute or so until liquid thickens to a gravy consistency.  If the sauce is still a bit too thin, just let the dish rest for a few minutes in the pan as the pasta will absorb the liquid.  Fold in frozen peas and well-rinsed spinach leaves until the leaves are wilted and peas are heated through.  Taste to see if dish needs any more salt or pepper.  Turn off heat and add grated parmesan, asiago or pecorino cheese.
8. Immediately serve in bowls and garnish with coarsely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley.

Comfortably serves 6.