Creamy Sausage and Mushroom Pasta
Golden mushrooms and crisp sausage come together in a creamy, savory pasta finished with parmesan, thyme and a squeeze of lemon.
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
- 200 grams dried pasta or 300 grams fresh
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ tablespoon butter
- 300 grams mushrooms sliced (see notes)
- 220 grams sausages (about three)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves roughly chopped
- ½ cup white wine (sauvignon blanc, pinot gris or similar)
- ¾ cup cream
- 50 grams parmesan cheese very finely grated
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (plus optional zest to serve)
- ½ cup Italian parsley finely chopped
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Bring a pot of well salted water to the boil and cook the pasta, reserving a cup of pasta water before draining. I tend to undercook dried pasta by a minute so it can finish cooking in the sauce.
- Squeeze the sausage meat out of the casings. I like to roll it into tiny meatballs but you can also break it up in the pan for more of a ground meat texture.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil and butter. Toss the mushrooms in then leave pretty undisturbed for 5-7 minutes, turning once until golden. Set aside on a plate.
- Add a drizzle of olive oil to the pan then add the sausage meat and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden.
- Turn the heat down to medium and add the garlic and thyme, cooking for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Pour in the wine and simmer for 3-4 minutes until slightly reduced, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan for extra flavor.
- Add the mushrooms back into the pan with the cream, bringing to a very gentle simmer.
- Push the sausage and mushrooms to one side of the pan then add the Parmesan cheese in three separate lots, letting each addition melt before adding the next. Keep the heat low and stir continuously so the cheese melts gently into the sauce.
- Add the cooked pasta with a small splash of pasta water (a bit less than ¼ cup), the black pepper and lemon juice and toss well. Let it gently bubble away for 2-3 minutes over a low heat to thicken. It will look loose in the pan but creamy sauces dry up a lot off the heat.
- Taste and adjust seasoning with salt if needed.
- Toss the parsley through right before serving and finish with lemon zest, extra parmesan and extra cracked black pepper if you like.
Video
Notes
Mushrooms - Any mushrooms work well here, button, cremini, swiss brown, portobello or oyster mushrooms are all great options. A mix is fab too.
Sausages - Use good quality sausages that you enjoy eating on their own, as they provide most of the seasoning for the sauce. Pork and fennel sausages are my always my favorite, but Italian sausages, chicken sausages or anything you love will work.
Wine - If you prefer to cook without wine, substitute it with chicken broth. Add an extra squeeze of lemon juice at the end to replace the acidity the wine provides.
Lemon - The lemon juice doesn’t make the pasta taste lemony. It simply balances the richness and brightens the final sauce.
Parmesan - Finely grate the parmesan using a microplane if possible. Pre-grated cheeses don’t melt as smoothly and can make the sauce slightly grainy.