Garganelli & Sausage

Garganelli are a form of egg pasta, very similar to the classic penne. Its origin has twofold story: some dates the invention of Garganello 1400 in the kitchens of Caterina Sforza; and who in 1700 in Romagna, the luxury of eating tortellini was for a few, so peasants invented this type of pasta, which absorbs the sauce just as a “stuffed pasta”. After all, the origins of egg pasta are humble. But the “legend” that I prefer to narrate, tells of a good cook, of the kitchens of Cardinal Bentivoglio, intents on making cappelletti/tortellini. While she was preparing them, a domestic animal ate a good portion of them. Alarmed by what had happened, and not to throw away the square of egg pasta that she had prepared, a fantastic idea come to her in a flash: roll them on a thin wooden torch and later “to scratch” them on a combs structure. Thus were born the garganelli, whose name comes from the dialect “garganel” or gullet, the tracheal part of the chicken. Hence the use of season with sausage, meat sauce or with ham and peas.

The recipe that I would like to offer you is a recipe “evergreen”. I thought I would achieve it for 8 March, Women’s Day, since it was a good housewife to invent this specialty! The choice of sauce is fall on the beloved sausage, for the accuracy on “Pesto Salsiccia Bolognese” to which I added porcini mushrooms.

Ingredients for 4 people:
400 g garganelli,
400 g pesto sausage,
50 g dried porcini mushrooms,
250 ml fresh cream,
1/2 cup white wine,
2 spring onions,
to taste extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl of warm water and let them soak for half a day. Peel the onions, chop finely and put them to fry in a pan with a little olive oil. Add the pesto sausage, divided it into pieces  with the help of a fork and brown over high heat for about 5 minutes. Simmer with wine and add the mushrooms coarsely chopped. Reduce the heat and cook for about half an hour, adding occasionally filtered water mushroom. Then add fresh cream and meanwhile boil the pasta in salted water. Drain the garganelli “al dente”, pour into the pan with the sauce and sauté for about two minutes. Serve with freshly ground pepper. Enjoy your meal!

Posted by Anita