Sausage, Fennel, and Chili Pasta

I love an interesting pasta dish. I'm not an overly big fan of tomato sauce, or maybe I'm just tired of it. I like it when it is not overly "saucy", which is opposite to how SO likes it. Anyway. This dish started when some friends came over and brought some fresh hot chilies from their garden. Yea!  The perfect way to spice up a dish.

Sausage, Fennel, and Chili Pasta

There are quite a few recipes out there that mix sausage and fennel, I wanted to try that. Plus any excuse to use a kitchen gadget....in this case, the mortar and pestle. So will just add the chilies, and for good measure some fresh herbs like parsley and green onions. And pickle, it needs pickle.

Some of the fresh ingredients

Grinding up the chilies and fennel worked out much better than I anticipated. Apart from watering eyes, it worked really well with the browned sausage.I didn't taste the pickle much honestly, not sure if there just wasn't enough or if it was a dumb idea. Will try more next time.

Next Time: either more pickle, or eliminate it.

Me: 9/10
SO: 6/10 (a bit too spicy)
SSO: n/a

Sausage, Fennel, and Chili Pasta
Ingredients

• your choice of pasta, enough for 4 to 6 people
• canola oil
• 1 Tb fennel seeds
• 2 chillies, finely chopped (or to taste)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 sausages, casings removed and roughly chopped
• 3 tsp dried dill
• 1 dill pickle, finely minced
• 1 cup white wine
• juice and zest from one lemon
• chopped green parts from a bunch of green onions
• 2 Tb parmesan
• handful of roughly chopped fresh leaf parsley

Method

1. Get the water boiling for the pasta.
2. Crush the fennel and chopped chillies with a mortar and pestle.
3. Brown the sausage and onion in a large pot with a bit of oil, breaking up the large bits. Add the chili mixture and stir well. Cook for a minute or two.
4. Add the dill, pickle, wine, lemon and zest, and green onions, turning down the heat a bit. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes 
5. Meanwhile, cook the pasta.When done, reserve some pasta water.
6. Add the cooked pasta to the pot, mixing well with the parmesan and parsley. Add some pasta water, maybe a cup. Season with salt and pepper.