Everybody loves a sausage – the evolution of the spaghetti bolognese

This is not my first foray into “food writing”, I once was the food columnist for the University College Dublin Tribune for all of a week

During my tenure at the Tribune , I wrote two articles one a review of the eateries available on campus , the highlight of that article being the neon pink chicken tikka sandwiches available in the student shop  and the other a  “how to guide” for the  student kitchen . In this, my advice to male students that when cooking a romantic meal for  a girlfriend, spaghetti Bolognese would  not cut it ,   as it was boring and girls do not  feel romantic trying to slurp up tomatoey pasta . What a snob I was. Thankfully my attitude to spag bol has changed.

Spaghetti bolognese is a classic to Irish cuisine, a bastardised version of the rich ragu bolonges. Its shady heritage withstanding, it is comfort food to the Nth degree, meat in a rich tomatoes sauce with silky pasta and Parmesan (or cheddar if you’re a student) seasoning the top. But this is no a post on spag bol. This is post on the dish which has replaced spag bog in my household; it still is mince meat in a rich sauce with pasta. It is Jamie Oliver’s Jools Pregnant Pasta dish.

Sausages , carrot , clearly ,spring onion blitzed up in the food process , seasoned with fennel seeds , chili and oregano., fried off  , add a tin of tomatoes  simmer for ten minutes and Jamie’s your uncle , a delicious , filling , comforting cheap meal in fifteen minutes . It is the  aniseed from the fennel and heat from the chili which really lift this dish and make it addictive .

sausage pasta

Ingredients

500 g of penne pasta

2 sticks of celery

1 carrot peeled and chopped into three

4 spring onions

I red chili with out the seeds

400 grams of sausages

Teaspoon of fennel seeds

Teaspoon of dried oregano

4 cloves of garlic crushed

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

1 can of chopped tomatoes

Fresh basil

Grated Parmesan 

Extra virgin olive oil

• Put your pasta on to cook . I am on diet at the moment so I use wholewheat penne . but it's up to you what shape you like .

• Add the carrot , celery , chili and spring onion to the food processor , pulse until finally chopped . Next add the sausages , fennel seeds , and oregano , pulse in short burst until the sausage is chopped . What you want here is a rough sausage paste . not sausage slurry 

• warm a glug  of oil  in pan big enough  to toss the pasta in later over a medium heat . Plonk your sauges meat mixture in the pan . at this stage it looks kinda of disgusting like a big pink pork blacmange like mass  , but don't panic it will be all right on the night .



• fry the meat  over a medium heat , breaking it up with a wooden spoon , as you  would  beef mince until it is golden brown and crumbly . 

• next add your cloves of crushed garlic , tablespoon of balsamic . this will hiss  a bit . stir it around to scrap up all the crsuty bits  from the pan and then add your toms , season with salt and perper , stir and leave it blip away on low heat for about ten minutes 



• When your pasta is cooked , reserve a mugful of the cooking water . This water is to losen up your meat saunce with in case the sauce is too thick . Some time I need some time I don't . Don't worry if you find you have dumped the water down the sink , you can allway use a splash of water from the kettle .

• Losen out the sauce if it needed  and then tip the warm pasta into the sauce . Again we are diviating from the Irish custom of putting the meat sauce atop the pasta . It all ways taste better if you mix the pasta into the pan with the sauce as it means an even coating of sauce to pasta.

• Garnish with fresh basil  , parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin oil  .

• Bring to the table and serve , yummy .