Gramigna with sausage and cream

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Gramigna is a fish-hooked long macaroni pasta shape local to Bologna and the surrounding Emilia-Romagna region and is often served bi-coloured, a mix of plain and green pasta coloured with spinach. The pasta shape seems relatively unknown in the UK, at least. Traditionally, gramigna is only served with a few mainly sausage-based sauces, including this simple recipe.

Ingredients

The sausage meat needs to be a fairly coarsely-ground Italian-style sausage meat with a high pork content and seasoned with fennel seeds and similar.

• 200 grams Italian sausage meat,
• 200 millilitres single cream,
• 200 grams gramigna,
• One small white onion,
• Knob of butter,
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Tear the sausage meat into small centimetre-sized lumps and set aside — do not smooth into balls like meatballs, but ensure they retain torn edges, which will "catch" and brown irregularly when cooking. Dice and gently fry the onion in the butter until soft. Add the sausage meat to the pan, frying and turning gently until cooked through and browned all over. Add the cream to the pan, gently warming throughout, and adjust seasoning. Boil the gramigna in salted water until just short of al dente, taking a spoon of starchy pasta water from the pan and adding it to the cream sauce as it cooks. Drain the gramigna and stir into the sauce, heating through, and serve.