Spaghetti with spiced sausage and fennel sauce

This is easy, quick and a crowd pleaser. My kids love it and they’re pretty picky. Leave out the fennel seeds if you don’t have any. You can use pasta shapes instead of spaghetti.

Overview

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Serves

4

Ingredients

• 400g spicy Italian sausages
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
• pinch fennel seeds, bashed in a mortar and pestle
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 200ml white or red wine 
• 1 x 400g tin cherry tomatoes 
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 300g spaghetti
• Grated Parmesan, to serve

Method

Step 1

Remove the sausage meat from the casings of 400g spicy Italian sausages and form into pieces a bit bigger than a hazelnut in its shell. 

Step 2

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a sauté pan and brown the sausage meat. Remove and set aside.

Step 3

Halve 1 bulb of fennel and remove the tough outer leaves. Trim the tips – remove and keep any little fronds – then cut each piece in half again. Discard the core, then finely chop the fennel flesh. 

Step 4

Sauté this in the pan along with 1 finely chopped onion until soft.

Step 5

Add ½ tsp dried chilli flakes, a pinch of fennel seeds (bashed in a mortar and pestle) and 2 grated garlic cloves, plus any fennel fronds, and cook for another 2 minutes. 

Step 6

Add 200ml white or red wine and let it bubble until reduced by half, then add 1 x 400g tin cherry tomatoes and their juice.

Step 7

Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down low. Season well, add 2 tsp caster sugar and cook for about 20 minutes. 

Step 8

Put the sausage meat back into the pan and cook for another 15 minutes. You may need to add a little water  – you should have a good thick tomato sauce that will coat pasta. Drizzle in 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil.

Step 9

Cook 300g spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente, then drain (keep a little cooking water to help you incorporate the sauce) and put back into the pan. 

Step 10

Reheat the sauce when the pasta is almost ready, then add it to the drained pasta.

Step 11

Serve with grated Parmesan.

Sign up to the Front Page newsletter for free: Your essential guide to the day's agenda from The Telegraph - direct to your inbox seven days a week.