Pasta salsiccia e peperoni is a simple, deeply satisfying pasta that celebrates sweet summer peppers and good Italian sausage. Quick to cook and full of flavour, it’s the sort of dish that proves you don’t need much more than excellent ingredients and a hot pan.
Pasta with sausage and peppers is one of those dishes that feels almost inevitable, as if it has always existed wherever peppers and pork have shared the same stretch of sun. In Italy, it belongs firmly to the warmer months, when peppers are at their sweetest and most expressive, and when simplicity in the kitchen is not a compromise but a virtue.
Peppers have a particular place in Italian food culture. Perfectly uniform examples may sit obediently on supermarket shelves all year round, but it is the crooked, misshapen ones, grown in season by people who understand them, that Italians prize most. Under the summer sun, they find their way into everything. Stuffed, fried with eggs, baked onto pizzas, folded through pasta, or charred over dying embers and peeled while still warm, always with olive oil and very often with garlic.
This dish brings together that affection for peppers with the rich savouriness of Italian sausage, loosened with a splash of white wine and bound by the starch of the pasta water. It is unfussy, quick, and rooted in everyday cooking rather than ceremony. The kind of meal that might remind you, unexpectedly, of lunches packed with care, eaten with pride, and scented unmistakably of garlic.
Pasta with sausage and peppers | Pasta salsiccia e peperoni
➤ SERVES: 4
➤ PREPARATION: 15 minutes
➤ COOKING: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 400g dried pasta (we used maccheroni)
- 400g Italian sausage
- 1 red pepper
- 1 yellow pepper
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
- 50ml white wine
- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Grated parmesan for serving
Method
- Remove the tops from the peppers. Slice them down the middle and remove the seeds. Slice the peppers into thin batons. Set aside. Place the sausage on a cutting board and, using a sharp knife, score and remove the skin.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. While it is cooking, heat the garlic in a heavy-based frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, and then add the sausage. Use a couple of wooden spoons to break it up. Once it begins to brown add the peppers and mix well. Add the wine and a ladle of water from the pasta. Continue cooking until the liquid has reduced and the pasta is ready.
- Drain the pasta and add, along with the sausage and peppers. Add the dried oregano and a good sprinkling of pepper. Toss everything together well and divide equally into serving bowls. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and serve with grated parmesan.
TIP: ‘Maccheroni’ describes a number of tubed pastas. The ones used here are longer than the usual ‘macaroni’ found in supermarkets.
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Recipe by Mario Matassa