Serves: 4

This is an Antonio Carluccio dish and it is a cracker; Nat and I picked up the book in the Prahan Markets when we went down to Melbourne for a weekend. Carluccio is a bit of a hero to me and a real father of Italian food.

This dish is rich, warm and rustic and really pretty straightforward to make. The sauce can be pre-made and even frozen for emergency dinners.

Ingredients

350g dried spelt spaghetti pasta
Salt and pepper to taste
60g pecorino cheese, freshly grated

Sauce

30g dried porcini, rehydrated
3 tbsp olive oil
50g unsalted butter
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
½ fresh hot red chilli, finely chopped
250g Italian sausage, meat removed from the skin and crumbled
100ml white wine
2 tbsp tomato paste, diluted in 2 tbsp water
1 tbsp fresh rosemary needles

Instructions

1. Soak the dried porcini for the sauce in hot water for 20 minutes, then drain, reserving the soaking water and chop.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan with the butter and fry the onion and chilli briefly.
3. Add the crumbled sausage meat and porcini and fry and stir for another 8 – 10 minutes on a low heat.
4. Add the wine and then cook for a further 2 minutes until the alcohol has evaporated.
5. Add the tomato and rosemary and cook for another 10 minutes on a low heat.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste and if more moisture is needed, add some of the porcini soaking water.
7. Meanwhile, cook the paste until al dente. Drain week.
8. Mix with the sauce, serve and sprinkle with the cheese.