Spicy sausage ragu
This light and spicy sausage ragu is packed full of flavour – with tomato, chilli, white wine and fresh rosemary, it’s a deeply aromatic slow-cooked sauce that’s perfect for warming up during the cooler months.
This page contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission when you purchase through an affiliate link, at no extra cost to you. I appreciate your support!
What I love about using sausage meat in a ragu is that you can quickly pack a punch of flavour by using a good quality sausages fragranced with herbs/fennel/you name it, and build on that with all of the wonderful extras in the sauce. I tend to go for an Italian-style sausage and add extra fennel seeds to really bring the flavour out.
Sun-dried tomatoes, chillis, fresh Roma tomatoes, white wine and stock make the base of this ragu, resulting in a light and spicy sauce that feels fresh and delicate all at the same time.
Why you’ll love this spicy sausage ragu
- Minimal prep – all you need to do is chop an onion, celery and garlic and you’re pretty much good to go!
- Perfect for the cooler months – I don’t know about you, but I love nothing more than getting cosy with a warming bowl of ragu as the temperatures drop. The subtle heat in this sausage sauce is perfect for warming up!
- A quicker alternative – while some ragus may take several hours to perfect, this sausage ragu comes together in just 2 hours on the stove.
- Deeply rich, but still light and delicate – using white wine and fresh rosemary brings a different angle to this dish. It’s lighter than a red wine based ragu, and the herbaceous notes from the rosemary are a welcome flavour on the palate.
Ingredients you’ll need to make it
- Fennel seeds – toasted and ground down to be later added to the sausage. I love this technique as it brings so much extra flavour to the dish and works so well with pork.
- Olive oil – a good quality olive oil for cooking, nothing too peppery and strong, I’m really enjoying this brand at the moment.
- Italian pork sausages – these are my preferred choice for this dish, but you could use a plain pork or pork and fennel sausage here.
- Soffritto base – onion, celery and garlic form the soffritto for this dish.
- Sun-dried tomatoes – add depth of flavour to the sause base
- Italian chilli paste – bring gentle heat to the ragu, though if you don’t like chilli, you can easily omit this entirely!
- White wine – brings acidity to the dish, and is lighter than adding red wine. I always opt for a dry white wine like Pinot Grigio, or Vermouth which can keep well in the fridge for months.
- Roma tomatoes – whole fresh tomatoes, peeled. If you’re short on time you can also keep the skins on 🙂
- Chicken stock – a little lighter and brighter than using a red meat stock, you could also substitute this for vegetable stock.
- Rosemary – a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary add a wonderfully herbaceous and floral note to this dish, that works really well with the fennel seeds and Italian sausage.
- Pecorino Romano – this is one of my favourite hard cheeses – a salty, sheep’s milk cheese with a sharper flavour than parmigiano reggiano. However the latter is an excellent substitute if you can’t find pecorino.
Pasta pairings
As pictured here, this ragu works particularly well with my homemade garganelli recipe, a short hand-formed tubular egg pasta that hails from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Or alternatively you could try making my fresh pappardelle ruvida.
But of course you don’t need to pair it with fresh pasta! Some other shapes that would work really well here would be:
- rigatoni – a short, thick tubular pasta, perfect for sauce catching.
- lumache – a lovely, curled short pasta, which translates to snails!
- farfalle – also known as bow tie pasta, this shape goes so well with this sausage ragu IMO.
- penne – we all know and love this shape, another great tubular pasta that can catch all of that sauce!
FAQs and substitutions
Can I make this in advance?
This is perfect for preparing in advance, as will all ragus they tend to taste even better the next day! Simply allow to cool, then store in the fridge until you’re ready to use.
How is best to reheat this ragu?
Reheat the ragu on a low heat on your stovetop, adding a splash of water to help loosen the sauce up.
Do I need to use fresh tomatoes?
While fresh tomatoes will result in a lighter, brighter sauce, you can absolutely substitute for 1x 400g can of whole, peeled tomatoes. I would recommend rinsing the tomatoes of their juices before adding to the sauce.
How do I peel a fresh tomato?
Simply cut a shallow cross at the base of the tomato, then submerge in boiling water for 30-60 seconds until the skin around the cut starts to curl and peel. Transfer the tomatoes to an ice bath, and then when cool enough to handle, peel away the skin.
That’s about it for this spicy sausage ragu! If you make it, I’d love to hear how you found it – drop me a comment below so I can see!
Spicy Sausage Ragu
Ingredients
- 1 tsp fennel seeds 2 tsp if using plain pork sausages
- EVOO
- 650 g Italian pork sausage meat you can also use plain pork, approx 8 links with the meat removed from the sausage casing
- 1 large brown onion finely diced
- 2 celery sticks finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves whole but slightly crushed
- 100 g sun-dried tomatoes
- 40 g hot Italian chilli – you can find this sold in jars at most delis or supermarkets it’s a semi-paste of hot chillis
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 3-4 large Roma tomatoes peeled
- 1 cup of chicken stock
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- Pecorino Romano to serve
- 400 g pasta of choice (or my homemade garganelli pasta is perfect for this one!)
Instructions
Spicy sausage ragu
- In a dry pan, gently toast the fennel seeds until fragrant – a minute or two. Remove from the heat and transfer to a pestle and mortar and grind the seeds until they form a powder.
- Place all of the sausage meat removed from its casing into a large bowl. Use a whisk to break the meat up into smaller pieces.
- Heat 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a pan and add the sausage meat along with a pinch of salt and the fennel powder. Sauté the sausage until brown and slightly crispy – we want good colour on the meat.
- Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside, reserving as much oil and fat in the pan as possible.
- Add the chopped onion and celery to the same pan and cook gently for around 7 minutes, until soft and slightly translucent. Add the garlic cloves and continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes and hot chilli to a blender and pulse to form a paste. Add this to the onion and celery and cook until slightly caramelised and darker in colour – a few minutes – before adding the sausage back to the pan.
- Add the white wine to deglaze the pan and let it reduce, before crushing in the fresh tomatoes with your hands and adding the stock and rosemary sprigs.
- Cover with a cartouche and simmer gently for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add splashes of stock or water as needed so the ragu doesn’t completely dry out. Check the seasoning, adding salt as required/to taste.
- Remove the garlic cloves and rosemary before serving.
Finishing touches
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt generously.
- Drop in the garganelli and cook for 2-3 minutes or until al dente.
- Using a spider, lift the garganelli straight out of the water and into the ragu. Toss well to coat.
- Divide between bowls, drizzle with EVOO and serve with grated Pecorino Romano.
