Penne with Sausage & Radicchio

Difficulty level  : Easy
Preparation and cooking time : 45minutes

From North east Italy
This recipe is more commonly made with rice but I think it's just as nice, if not nicer, with pasta.
In the north east of Italy they grow the salad known as radicchio in very special way. The salad is harvested in late autumn, the outer leaves stripped away, and packed side by side into wire crates. The crates are then placed into dark sheds for several days. The bottoms of the salads are submerged in fresh water. The result is a longer, sweeter and more delicate salad. This recipe is best made with that kind of radicchio which has the perfect balance of bitter and sweet. However, if you can't get hold of this Italian version you can use the more commonly found, slightly more bitter version of radicchio as the sausage helps to sweeten the dish.
If you don't like radicchio or can't find it you can use mushrooms instead. It's still delicious, but doesn't have that interesting and yummy mix of sweet and bitter.

For 4 people
1 serving spoon of olive oil
5 fat sausages
1 clove of garlic
800g radicchio
half a glass of wine
20cl single cream
salt and pepper
500g penne pasta



Instructions
Start by removing the skin from the sausages.
Break the sausages into small cubes, about 1cm3 is perfect.
Heat the oil and whole peeled garlic clove in a large heavy based frying pan.
Add the sausage and cook over a medium heat until the meat is lightly browned.
Reduce the heat and prepare the radicchio.
Simply slice the radicchio, as you might a carrot, across the lengths, the slices should be about 1/2cm wide.
Add the sliced radicchio to the sausage and stir.
Add the wine. (You can add a little more of less as you prefer)
Season well with salt and pepper
leave to cook for about 15 minutes on a low heat.

Meanwhile you can prepare the pasta.
Boil lots of well salted water in a large saucepan, great pasta is always cooked in a lot of water.
Once the water is really boiling well, add the pasta.
I suggest using De Cecco or if you can't find it Barilla.
As soon as the pasta is ready drain it and return it to the saucepan.
Leave on the side for a minute while you finish the sausage and radicchio.


The 15 minutes for the sausage and radicchio should now be up.
Stir half the cream into the radicchio and sausage and increase the heat for 30 seconds.
Add the sausage and radicchio to the pasta.
Heat the two over a medium heat and add the remaining cream, stirring all the time.
Once it's all well mixed together it's ready to serve.

For this recipe I recommend putting a bowl of freshly grated Parmesan on the table rather than adding it before serving. The dish already has a strong flavour so I prefer to let people add the cheese to suit their taste.

Wine
This dish is a great winter dish and is best with a robust red wine to cut through the sweet fattiness of the sausage.
I usually serve a wine from Languedoc-Roussillon. Any wine experts out there who have any specific good suggestions please don't hesitate to share your knowledge!