Meaty Monday: Italian sausage and pasta

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

450g pack Lincolnshire sausage, meat squeezed out

200g vacuum-packed chestnut from a can or jar, very roughly chopped

2 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

1 tablespoon fennel seed

1 glass full-bodied red wine

500g carton passata

500g large pasta shells or pappardelle

small pack curly parsley, finely chopped

Parmesan

Method

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and fry the onion for 5 minutes. Once starting to soften, add the sausage meat and chestnuts, and fry for another 10-12 minutes breaking the meat up with a wooden spatula or spoon as you fry it. Keep the heat quite high and ensure to stir often.

When the meat and chestnuts are golden brown, add the garlic, rosemary and fennel seeds, and cook for a further 2 minutes. Splash in the wine, let most of it boil away, then tip in the passata. Cover and simmer the sauce for 10 minutes while you boil the pasta in plenty of salted water, following pack instructions.

Reserve a cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta well. Toss the pasta, 3 tablespoons of the water, the ragu and most of the parsley together, then season to taste.

Finally, add the remaining parsley and sprinkle parmesan. Serve and enjoy