Sugo al salsiccia, freetarian style

Sausages are the pride of Brits - a great Cumberland sausage beats any other fresh sausage in the world hands down (as of the day of publishing). However, gluten, dairy and egg sausages are as rare as a sunny day in London - an urbane, or mundane if wished, Londoner like myself is often restricted to the charms of supermarket chains, as good butchers are far and few in between. Nevertheless, good sausages are worth any trip, and my personal favourite is minced with rosemary and peppercorn*.

In our home, ragu al salciccia or sausage-meat raguot is a firm addiction which is fed once a month apart from during the summer ones. Sausage meat (the meat removed from it's casing) is browned in olive oil and mirepoix and put through a proper seasoning - salt, pepper, a dash or more of cayenne, freefriendly dark chocolate, fresh rosemary and thyme, tomato paste, dried Greek oregano and always a generous dash of acid like balsamic vinegar - then cooked low and slow over the stove with San Marzano canned tomatoes (this is absolutely essential but if Whole Foods is not around the corner, one should protest, or otherwise use only Mutti canned tomatoes) and half a bottle of good red wine (it is non negotiable to use bottles with corks and I favour a Burgundy for this recipe - don't tell the Italian). It needs to be stirred especially after it's 3rd hour of cooking so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Cooking time would depend on the quality of the sausagemeat, in any case north of 4 hours at least. When serving, it is important to preserve pasta cooking liquid to ensure the ragu clings to the pasta in a smooth luxuriously velvety marriage...

The result - heaven:

Note for freetarians, I discovered a tagliatelle from waitrose, Le Veneziane, made with corn and without rice (for once!). Hopeless as it sounds, it tastes pretty corny.

*we will also be making our own sausages in the new year so be sure to keep reading...