Rigatoni Alla Buttera: Cowboy-Style Rigatoni
 
 
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 brown (yellow) onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, finely chopped
  • ½ celery stalk, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 30 g (1 oz) prosciutto, cut into thin strips
  • 60 g (2 oz) pancetta, cut into thin strips or diced
  • a few sage leaves
  • 1 rosemary sprig, leaves chopped
  • 300 g (10½ oz) pork sausages, casings removed
  • 125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) dry white wine
  • 200 g (7 oz) tomato passata (puréed tomatoes)
  • 320 g (11½ oz) dried rigatoni (large tube-shaped pasta) or penne pasta
  • finely grated pecorino or parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
  1. Pour the olive oil into a wide frying pan and add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, prosciutto, pancetta and herbs with a pinch of salt. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables have softened and the fat is transparent. Add the sausages, crumbling the meat into the pan. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring to brown all sides.
  2. Pour over the white wine and let it cook down for about 5–7 minutes.
  3. Add the tomato passata and 500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) of water and bring to a simmer. Cook on low for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary (this is a fairly robust sauce with lots of flavour from the prosciutto, pancetta and sausage, so you may not need any extra salt), then continue cooking for a further 10 minutes or so. You should have a well-reduced, thick, rich sauce. Set aside.
  4. Put the pasta in a large pot of boiling, well-salted water. Boil until al dente, then drain and toss with the sauce.
  5. Serve with plenty of finely grated pecorino or parmesan cheese.
Notes
In Tuscany, sausages are always pork, have natural casings and are only flavoured with a few fennel seeds. Choose good quality sausages. Go for fresher sausages over aged ones (they will be softer, so easier to crumble and incorporate into the sauce). Make sure there is no gluten or anything else added that might affect the texture of the cooked sausages in the ragu. If you can’t find rigatoni, go for penne pasta.
Recipe by The Taste Edit at https://thetasteedit.com/rigatoni-alla-buttera-cowboy-style-rigatoni/