I would often dine at restaurant named Louisa’s Trattoria when I first moved to Los Angeles back in the late 80’s and this dish was inspired by one of the pasta’s on the menu. It is my understanding Louisa’s is no longer in business, however, it was a very popular and successful restaurant with multiple locations throughout the LA area.
Louisa’s offered a variety of pastas and main course dishes in large portions with all you can eat focaccia bread. I would often split each course and sometimes would even have leftovers to take home.
I believe the original pasta dish, contained chicken and dollops of the ever popular goat cheese of the 1980’s, however, I like to finish my pasta with some shaved/grated romano or parmesan cheese. I still love goat cheese, but I find the hard grated cheeses compliments this pasta perfectly without adding too much richness.
In this recipe I have used sweet Italian pork sausage with broccolini and fennel, but keep in mind you can vary this recipe, changing out the protein and the vegetables. Try this pasta with other types of sausage, meats, shrimp or a combination of different seafood.
Skip the all you can eat focaccia bread, as you’re going to want a second helping of this pasta.
La vita e’ bella!
Ingredients
- 3 Italian style sausage (pork, chicken or turkey)
- 8 oz. pasta (rigatoni, ziti, penne, or favorite shape)
- 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion cut in strips
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 small red bell pepper cut in strips
- 1 small green bell pepper cut in strips
- 1 small fennel bulb sliced in strips
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomato in oil drained and cut in strips
- 1 tbs tomato paste
- 1 tbs anchovy paste
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup reserved pasta water
- 8 oz. blanched/cooked broccolini florets and stems chopped (regular broccoli ok)
- 1 tbs unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp dried chili flakes (optional)
- 1/3 cup fresh basil chopped
- 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
- salt/pepper to taste
- grated romano, parmesan or combination
Directions
- Add sausages to a large covered (12″) skillet with high sides, adding enough water to come up about 1/2 an inch up the side of the pan. Bring water to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook sausages, turning once or twice until water evaporates and sausages are brown and cooked through. You should have formed a brown but not burnt coating on the bottom of your pan. This is called a fond and is an essential part of adding a greater depth of flavor when cooking dishes like this.
- Remove sausage and allow to cool slightly on a plate.
- Prepare and cut all vegetables.
- While prepping vegetables bring a large 6-8 qt. pot of salted water (about 1 tbs of salt) to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente, reserve 1 cup of pasta water, drain and coat pasta with a little olive oil to prevent sticking and reserve.
- When sausages are cool enough, slice them crosswise in 1/2 pieces and reserve.
- In the same skillet the sausages were cooked in, heat 1 tbs of extra virgin oil and sauté vegetables (onion, garlic, peppers, fennel, sun-dried tomatoes) until they start to sweat and release all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Add tomato and anchovy paste, stirring until evenly mixed.
- Add 1/2 cup of white wine to the vegetable mixture and cook/reduce for about 10 minutes.
- Add chopped broccolini, sausages, 1 tbs butter and 1/2 cup of pasta water stirring gently until heated through about 5-10 minutes.
- Toss pasta with vegetable/sausage mixture, add in pine nuts, chopped basil, chili flakes and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. If your skillet is not big enough toss vegetables in with pasta and gently stir until evenly distributed.
- If pasta still looks dry add a little more pasta water.
- Serve pasta with freshly grated romano or parmesan cheese.
Note: Ricotta salata cheese is also great choice for this pasta