4½ ingredients fennel sausage ragù

when there’s limited food in the fridge, this 4 or 5 ingredients ragù is a recipe that relies on pantry ingredients, can be made as quickly or as slowly as necessary, keeps great as leftovers and will put some warmth in your belly.

portion size - 4 servings

preparation time - 10 mins

cooking time - 30-40 mins (or longer for more depth)

difficulty - easy

ingredients

• 400g of premium sausagemeat chopped into chunk of varying size no bigger than 2cm across
• 1 tsp of fennel seeds
• ½ tsp of crushed chilli (adjust to taste)
• 1 400g tin of chopped/crushed tomatoes

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it is important to have different sizes for sausagemeat so the smaller chunks really melt in the sauce while the bigger ones keep some bite.

method

1. brown the sausagemeat in a pan over medium-high heat until golden, if your sausagemeat is very lean you can get it started with a little neutral/cooking oil, once browned set it aside
2. if going with the fennel bulb, add it to the pan with the oil and sucs left behind by the sausagemeat, fry on medium-low heat for 10 minutes until softened and translucent golden, stirring often
3. add the fennel seeds to the pan, mix vigorously to be sure the seeds get oily which will allow their flavour to come our quicker, raise the heat under the pan and deglaze with a little water then cover and simmer for 3 minutes, adding more water if necessary
4. add the tin of tomatoes and the chilli flakes, return the sausagemeat to the pan, season with salt and pepper, simmer for at least 25 minutes

   at this point the tomatoes will still be acidic and not have gained the sweetness and depth from cooking, don’t season too much now and taste again later on

5. 10 minutes before serving, cook some pasta to al dente, add a few tablespoons of late pasta water to the ragù and stir in the pasta
6. optionally, garnish with a drizzle of olive oil and thinly chopped fronds from the fennel