Fennel Sausage Pasta with Confit Leek
I was working on some recipes ideas for simple, speedy but tasty and different dinner ideas and this was day 2 of my series, ’10 Ways To Up Your Dinner Game!’. I had so much fun with this series and intend to do it all again because there are so many underused veggies that I want us all to use more of. Let’s get seasonal and creative with our dinners!! Also, I was super happy to use leek in this recipe because this is my love letter to the beautiful, humble leek. I want us all to eat more of this vegetable, so make this the first dish you try. Enjoy!
I’m very much a visual person and love a step by step video, so if you want to see this recipe in action or if any of my instructions need a bit of clarification, you can watch me make this dish here. As you may see, I didn’t have any pappardelle pasta to hand so opted for lasagne sheets that I cut into thick strips instead.
Let’s up your dinner game
If you want more exciting dinner recipes that are simple but incredibly filling and delicious, why not try some more from the series below:
Ingredients
For the Sausage Meat
- 2-3 sausages (skin removed)
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- Salt and black pepper
For the Confit Leeks
- 2 small leeks
- 100ml - 200ml olive oil
For the Pasta
- 5 lasagne sheets per person OR 100g pappardelle per person
To Garnish
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- Fresh tarragon (optional)
- Parmigiano reggiano (optional)
Method
- De-skin the sausages and break up the sausage meat a little.
- Mix in the fennel seeds and seasoning.
- Wash and chop the leeks into 1/2 cm, thick rings.
- Place the leeks in a sauce pan with the olive oil (it should be completely covering the leeks) and cook on a low heat for 10-20mins until the leeks are soft but not coloured. This will confit the leeks.
- Get a large pan of salted water on to boil.
- Brown off the sausage meat in a frying pan until nice and golden.
- Cook the lasagne sheets in boiling water until they are a bit flexible and then carefully cut them into the strips (if you are using a pasta just boil it as usual).
- Add the leeks into the sausage meat but not all the oil. Just use a slotted spoon.
- Now you can add the pasta in too and a ladle of the pasta water in to loosen it all up a little.
- Season with black pepper and sprinkle over the chilli flakes and tarragon.
- Serve up and dig in!