This is my holiday recipe for Spaghetti with Pork & Fennel sausage in Tomatoe Sauce

Well, my 2 weeks respite from work is drawing to a close, so I wanted to indulge with a delicious spaghetti recipe not worrying about fat content but concentrating on taste with maximum......Aaarrgh... !~

Autumn is drawing to a close and winter is about to begin.. Bring it on. I love Autumn and Winter.

I had lamb casserole the other night with friends, so thought I would try this before I'm back to work.

I won't list the ingredients.. you'll have to read if your interested in making this one.

One needs a bit of a feel for cooking to make this successfully, but then again it's difficult to mess up.

Just don't dry out the sauce and over cook the pasta and you'll be just fine.

A nice pot will do for starters not too big or too small, about one with a 8" diameter. If it's smaller or larger it doesn't matter .. just cook accordingly.

1/ Pour a generous amount of quality extra virgin olive oil. Don't be shy.. one can never have too much of this in for pasta sauces.

2/ Throw in about 3-5 cloves of peeled garlic.. scoring the outer..
' run the knife along the clove all over in a few directions ' Pipo.. an Italian lad I used to live with taught me this technique '.

3/ Fry the garlic until just golden brown.. you will then have your already finely diced red onion ready to throw in. Tonight, I used about 3/4 of a medium sized red onion.

Once the garlic is just golden brown stirring with a wooden spoon or like fry off the red onion with a bay leaf or two, until translucent, going golden brown. Just don't burn it.

All this on a low / medium heat.

Then.........

4/ Add 2 cans of Italian tomatoes which will have had their tops / stalk ends cut off and thrown away, with the remainder squished between your clean hands and fingers. Cover the squishing hand with your other or it's likely you'll get tomatoe everywhere.


5/ Then add about 1 can of water. Use the can from which the tomatoes came from.. Turn up the heat a little to bring to slight boil, watch it.. then bring down to just a simmer..

I like to season 3 times. Once at the beginning, then in the middle, and finally adjust at the end if necessary, which would be most likely.

You can always add but never subtract with seasoning.. so 3 times gradually is better than a whole lot of mistake at the beginning.


6/ Add some sea salt and black pepper, from grinders.
Then add teaspoon sugar +/-.
Grate some fresh nutmeg about 1/5 of a whole.

Gently stir in the seasoning.

7/ In a separate fry pan.. seal 4 thick pork and fennel( hot, medium or mild ) sausages you've somehow managed to find from an excellent butcher after an entire days search.

Don't cook them.. just brown on all sides.. put aside.. this can be done at the beginning or at
anytime you like before you need to place into the pot.

8/ Place the browned only ( not cooked ) pork and fennel sausages whole into the simmering sauce.. turn up the heat and bring to slight boil.. watch the pot.. then immediately bring down to simmer again.

9/ So, at this stage it's all smelling pretty good but looking a bit watery in the pot.. cook down on slow simmer for up to an hour..

10/ About every 15-20 minutes for the next hour check on the sauce for consistency and ( seasoning ) .. 30 minutes into the cooking prick 2 of the sausages a few times ( 3 or 5 times each ) to let the sausage juices run out into the sauce.

11/ When the sauce is reasonably thick with all of the 1 can of water essentially cooked down and then just a little more, remove the sausages and angle cut them into about 1 cm thick rounds. Put all of the sausage back into the pot and gently fold ( try some if you like ).

At this stage the sauce and sausage may need only about another 10 minutes because you will be checking the sauce for consistency.. and lastly ( seasoning ) you may like it a little thicker or thinner.

Thicker cook longer.. thinner take away from heat sooner.


In the meantime................. about 10-15 odd minutes before the sauce is ready...........


12/ Cook some quality Italian made pasta ( 100 % durum wheat ) in salted water.. When just right.. ( test for bight ) drain and return to the pot, not on the heat. The heat from the pot and spaghetti and sauce will be just fine.

13/ Add the sauce and sausage to the pasta.. Oh 500 gm of top notch Italian pasta will work ( for the amount of sauce from 2 cans of tomato and 1 can of water cooked down ), or better still home made fresh through the machine is awesome.

14/ Gently fold through the sauce and sausage so that all of the pasta is properly covered. Put on the lid
and let sit for 5 mins.

15/ Just before serving pre heat some bowls in the microwave or oven.

16/ Take the lid off the pot.. gently stir the pasta and serve desired amount into warmed bowls.

I did not have cheese with this dish. It was just fine without..

With this dish I drank a delicious South Australian wine..

If I may, it was a ' Hewitson's, Ned & Henry's 2007 Shiraz from the Barossa Valley. Not too bad at $21.90Au from Dan Murpheys.

It's a lip likcer.

I was listening to an Australian ( Melbourne) Funk band ' The Bamboos ' album titled, Side Stepper on my

All the senses were well catered for.

Aksel.




PS : Tip............ to taste for seasoning throughout cooking, cut fresh white bread up into 1" thick strips and dip this into the sauce being sure to get a bit of onion.. Blow on the bread and sauce for a few seconds
or it will burn.

This way easily easily beats putting a wooden or metal spoon into the sauce.