Asparagus and sausage sauce for pasta

Rating: 3.8/5. From 4 votes.
Please wait...
Print

Asparagus and sausage sauce for pasta

  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • For 4 people:
  • Large bunch of asparagus (500g, 1 lb)
  • 4 plain Italian sausages (no herbs or spices in them)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt, pepper, thyme (optional)
  • Parmesan cheese to serve

Instructions

  1. Wash the asparagus.
  2. Snap where the asparagus naturally breaks (try to use as much as possible). Discard the ends.
  3. With a knife, scape off any dirty parts near the base of the asparagus.
  4. Cut off 2 inches of spear and reserve.
  5. Cut the rest of the asparagus thinly on a bias (diagonal).
  6. Starting with a good splash of cold olive oil, gently stir-fry the pieces, adding salt, pepper and 2 cloves of garlic, kept whole.
  7. Meanwhile, remove the sausages from their casing, crumble into small pieces and fry in another pan for 4-5 minutes until cooked through and browning.
  8. When the asparagus is soft (6-8 minutes approx), remove a third to half of the pieces and put in a container that can be used with a hand blender.
  9. Adding a little olive oil as you go, hand blend to a creamy emulsion.
  10. Add the cooked sausage and the asparagus spears to the pan with the pieces and heat through for a couple of minutes. Discard the garlic. Add the asparagus emulsion and stir through. Check for salt. Add pepper and a sprinkling of thyme if you like.
  11. Use to dress pasta (long pasta such as tagliolini works well) and sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese.

Did you make this recipe?

Share a photo and tag us — we can't wait to see what you've made!