Pasta With Spicy Italian Sausage and Jimmy Nardello Peppers
Saturday is my favorite day of the week because it means a trip to the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. I get so inspired during my market visits – seeing all of the beautiful in-season produce and chatting with the farmers about their favorite ways to cook with the ingredients from their stands is the best.
At my most recent trip to the market, I picked up some Jimmy Nardello peppers (among a ton of other stuff!). They’re a long, waxy, red Italian pepper with a mild, slightly sweet, but very fruity flavor. They’re delicious pickled or, my personal favorite, melted down in a pan with olive oil and served on toast with burrata or whipped ricotta with a drizzle of honey on top. This time, I wanted to try something different and when my friend from cooking school, Nora, mentioned she loves Nardellos with sausage in pasta, I was sold!
I came up with this easy, incredibly flavorful pasta dish that comes together so quickly and is SUCH a crowd-pleaser. My boyfriend even said he’d pay $30 in a restaurant for it…LOL. Hope you enjoy it as much as he did!
Serves 4-5
INGREDIENTS
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage
1/2 lb spicy Italian sausage
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
Kosher salt
1.5 cups thinly sliced jimmy nardello peppers (from about 3 large handfuls of peppers)
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to finish
1 lb any short, tubilar dried pasta (rigatoni, penne, etc.)
Basil
Ricotta (optional)
METHOD
Bring a large pot of water up to a boil. While that’s happening, brown your sausage. Add the sausage to a large skillet or cast iron pan. Turn on the heat to medium after the sausage is in the pan (this allows the fat to render out slowly – this way you don’t need to add any additional oil to get it started!). Once the sausage has started to release its fat, turn up the heat to medium-high and cook for 5-7 minutes until brown on the outside and just cooked through. As it’s cooking, use a wooden spoon to break it up into bite-sized pieces.
Remove the sausage from the pan and transfer to a plate but leave the fat behind. This is what we’ll cook our veggies in.
With the pan on medium heat, add the sliced onions and a big pinch of salt to the fat. Cook the onions until they begin to soften but not brown, about 2 minutes. Add the sliced peppers and garlic along with another pinch of salt. Cook the vegetables for 5-7 minutes, until everything is soft and melted down.
At this point, your pasta water should be boiling. Salt the boiling water generously and add in the pasta.
While your pasta cooks, add the browned sausage into the pan with the melted down onions, pepper and garlic. Take 1 cup of the pasta water out (you can do this while the pasta cooks!) and add to the sausage and veggie mixture. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and allow the mixture to simmer for 1-2 minutes, until the sauce reduce.
Add the pasta to the pan with the sauce once it has been cooking to 1 minute UNDER al dente – we will finish cooking it in the sauce.
With the heat on medium, toss the pasta continually to coat it with the sauce. Allow the pasta to simmer in the sauce while you stir it for about 1 minute until it’s thick and coated. Stirring the pasta constantly will agitate the gluten and help to thicken and emulsify the sauce. If the sauce becomes too thick, add more pasta cooking water to help thin it out.
Serve in bowls topped with more freshly grated Parmesan cheese, fresh basil leaves and a dollop of ricotta, if desired.
NOTES
If you don’t have a farmer’s market nearby and/or can’t find Jimmy Nardello peppers, you can use any mild pepper – I’d recommend Gypsey or Padrone peppers but if you can’t find those either, a mixture of green and red bell pepper will work here!
If you don’t like spice, just use 1 full pound of sweet Italian sausage and skip the spicy stuff.