Slow Cooked Sausage & Pepper Pasta Sauce

• 8Italian-style pork sausages
• 3peppers, mixed colours, deseeded and sliced into strips
• ½ tspfennel seeds
• 1large red onion, thinly sliced
• 5garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tspchilli flakes
• 1½ tspdried oregano
• 150 mlred wine
• 700 gpassata
• 1 tspcaster sugar
• 2 tbspolive oil
• 2bay leaves
• 10fresh basil leaves, torn
• Fine salt and black pepper
• 450 gdried pasta, cooked (optional)
• 30 gparmesan, finely grated (optional)

Method

1. 1Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large, wide casserole or deep-sided frying pan over medium-high heat. Pat the sausages dry and season them with a pinch of salt. Add them whole, in a single layer with space between each one. Don't crowd the pan; if it looks tight, do them in two batches. Brown for around 8 minutes, turning every couple of minutes, until they've got a deep mahogany crust all the way round. Lift them out and slice each one diagonally into 4–5 thick chunks.
2. 2Add the remaining olive oil to the same pan. Tip in the peppers and red onion with a good pinch of salt. Cook over medium-high heat for 10–12 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until the peppers have collapsed and the edges are catching and caramelising. You want colour, not just softness.
3. 3Add the garlic, fennel seeds, chilli flakes, and dried oregano. Stir and cook for 30–60 seconds, just until the spices smell fragrant and toasty and the garlic turns pale gold.
4. 4Pour in the red wine and let it bubble hard for 3 minutes, scraping the base of the pan with a wooden spoon to lift every bit of fond into the sauce. It should reduce by half and smell rich rather than sharp.
5. 5Pour in the passata with 100ml water, the sugar and bay leaves. Swill the passata container with the water to collect the remaining tomato. Stir well, then nestle the sausage chunks back into the sauce.
6. 6Bring to a gentle simmer and drop the heat to low. Cook uncovered for 30–35 minutes, stirring every so often, until the sauce is thick and glossy, the peppers have softened into it and the sausages are cooked through. If it tightens too far, splash in more water; you're after a sauce that coats a spoon, not a paste.
7. 7Fish out the bay leaves and stir through most of the torn basil. If serving with the optional pasta, cook it in well-salted boiling water until al dente, saving a mugful of cooking water before draining. Toss the pasta with the sauce and loosen with a splash of pasta water if needed.
8. 8Scatter over the remaining basil and add the optional grated parmesan if using. This recipe makes six portions of sauce; the optional pasta and parmesan are additional serving suggestions.

Per serving

kcal

387

protein

14.8g

fibre

5.2g

carbs

22.9g

fat

25.3g