Fettuccine with Sausage Ragu

Expect the unexpected. It's the sweet juice in life. Sometimes you think it's a curve ball and you duck but when you come up - if you're lucky - you just may find something new to enchant. And during those moments - you never grow old.

We found a legion of Roman soldiers in Bologna.

And insights as to how they lived.

Frescoes in unexpected places.

And Ragu Bolognese in every city we visited. You don't need to go to Bologna to have a terrific plate of ragu. And even if an ocean is standing in the way of you and Italy - this recipe will fly you there - as surely as you grabbed the tail end of a kite and soared there yourself.

This is a particularly earthy version. The porcini mushrooms just thrust you into the Italian countryside where you think yourself the mighty forager. It's hearty, meaty and substantial. Perfect for a snow day. Especially when the snow day is unexpectedly in Rome! 

Fettuccine with Sausage Ragu from Tastes of Italia

Makes 4-6 servings (I would say this makes closer to 4 servings - I doubled this to serve 7)

1/2 pound fettuccine - cooked al dente

3 ounces dried porcini mushrooms (can use less - I used 3 ounces for the doubled recipe)

1 cup beef broth

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup chopped onion

1 pound Italian sweet sausage, crumbled (can use turkey sausage)

1/2 cup dry red wine (I used Sangiovese)

2 teaspoons tomato paste

1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (a debate raged in Italy in the 1970's as to whether to include nutmeg in ragu recipes)

1/4 cup milk (I used 2%)

salt and pepper to taste

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for topping (they say it is optional, I say no - it's not)

Soak the mushrooms in hot beef broth for 30 minutes. Heat the butter in a large skillet of medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add sausage and cook until no longer pink and you have made it all crumbly with the back of your spoon. (6-10 minutes).

Add wine, mushrooms with broth, tomato paste and tomatoes. Stir to mix. Bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. (I let it simmer for over an hour - until the tomatoes have broken down and you can barely see them.)

Somewhere during the simmering process cook the fettuccine according to package instructions.
Stir in the nutmeg and milk and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes. (I use freshly- grated nutmeg but the spice police won't pick you up if you don't). Salt and pepper to taste. Mix with fettuccine and serve, passing Parmesan separately.

And note - this is a ragu - not a liquidy tomato sauce - don't drown the pasta! Let the ragu mix with the pasta - not overpower it.

At the Piazza Navona in Rome, we came across a gentleman singing karaoke to Pavarotti. Tears streaming down his face as he sang, he wound up being one of our fondest memories. We returned again and again looking for him.

And even though I a have been home for months, the unexpected still sneaks up on me. On Saturday morning, the Twin Cities was paid a visit by the Frost Fairy.

Last winter, we lived on a frozen tundra. This winter we dwell with the frost fairies.

When the outside is colder than my freezer ...

... I feel genetically obligated to make pasta. I made this a few weeks ago and noted it in my Cover Girls blog - which is something my sister and I dreamed up - to keep us from going insane in the Minnesota winter (we cook cover recipes from magazines once a month). The day I made this dish, the inside of my freezer was twenty degrees warmer than the air outside my home! I was determined to find a dinner meal that did not entail a trip to the grocery store. I had wearied of putting on all the clothes in my closet to go outside.


I feel like I am double-dipping - using this recipe in two different blogs - but over at La Dolce Vita and Proud Italian Cook, they are holding a Festa and I have the perfect entree: Fettucine with Ragu.


Ragu was not something my family made. They worked their magic with red sauces or "gravy" as it was sometimes called. Grandma and Grandpa hailed from Potenza and Ragu hails from Bologna. Different regions, different dialects and different foods.

I found this in February 2009's issue of Tastes of Italia and it fit my criteria for the evening meal: pasta, comforting and every ingredient was already in the house.

You need: (For four)
1/2 pound fettuccine cooked according to package directions (I used one pound and had enough sauce for all; there is no way 1/2 pound of pasta serves four in my home)
3 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup beef broth
3 T butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 pound sweet Italian sausage - casings removed
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tsp tomato paste
1 15-oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 tsp nutmeg (I am a recent convert and now grate my own)
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese for topping (It says optional; Parmesan cheese is never optional ion my home - it is required)


Wash the mushrooms and chop them. Soak the mushrooms in beef broth for 30 minutes. In a large skillet heat the butter on medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the sausage and cook for 5-6 minutes (until it is crumbly and brown). Add tomatoes and cook till mixed..



Add wine, tomato paste, beef broth with porcinis and stir to mix well. Bring to boil, reduce heat and cook for 45 minutes - stirring occasionally.




The simmering time is a must. The flavors intensify and the aroma works its magic. I probably stirred more often than necessary because I liked visiting my sauce. It made me forget that the outside was a bleak frozen tundra.

Stir in the nutmeg and milk and cook for ten minutes. Taste for salt and pepper. Remove and mix with pasta. Top with grated Parmesan.





Easy enough for a casual meal, flavorful enough for the Festa and a quick side trip to Bologna to offset the "frozen tundra blues." Grandma may never have made it but she would have approved.