MALLOREDDUS WITH SAUSAGE, OYSTER MUSHROOMS & APRICOTS
Sometimes when I’m in the kitchen at work we play around with recipes and an unusual combination of flavours will spring to mind. Alessandro made a beautiful pasta with sausage meat and mushrooms, then the thought of apricots entered my head. Sometimes these slightly crazy ideas just work and now this pasta is our new autumn favourite
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Squeeze the sausage meat out of the skins and break it up with your fingers. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the sausage meat and cook for 6–8 minutes on a medium-high heat until the meat is cooked through and has nice crispy edges.
While the meat is cooking, place the dried apricots into a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave for 10 minutes to soften (how long depends on what type of dried apricots you have, some may take a little longer to soften sufficiently). Drain, then chop into small cubes.
Now add the mushrooms and garlic to the sausage meat, sprinkle with a generous pinch of sea salt flakes and cook for 5 minutes until the mushrooms are softened. Reduce the heat to low, add the vermouth or white wine, stir well, and cook for another couple of minutes.
Finally add the double cream and the chopped apricots and keep the saucepan on a very low heat while you cook your pasta.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil before adding salt, drop in the malloreddus and cook for 3–4 minutes (if you are using pappardelle then cook for 1½–2 minutes).
Transfer the cooked pasta to the sauce using a kitchen spider or large slotted spoon, keeping the pasta water to one side. If the sauce is too thick, add a little bit of the pasta cooking water. Turn up the heat to medium; you want to slightly reduce the sauce, combining the starchy pasta water and the cream so that the sauce clings nicely to the pasta. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and the lemon juice, then season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss well together.
Serve straight away with a bowl of green salad or steamed green vegetables – perfect comfort food.