Sausage Ragu With Pappardelle Pasta

Sausage Ragu Sauce

Butchers put a lot of time and effort into packing flavour and juiciness into sausages. So I almost see it as my duty to show you how we can get so much more out of sausages than throwing on the barbie* or the usual Bangers and Mash! Enter – Sausage Ragu. This meat sauce gets a massive flavour boost by using sausage meat rather than plain beef mince, as well as cooking it long and slow which gives the sauce time to develop flavour as well as making the meat melt-in-your-mouth tender. Also, starting with the classic soffritto helps. 🙂 Which might sound fancy but it just refers to sautéing onions, garlic, celery and carrots over low heat to make them beautifully sweet. It’s a secret tip to create an incredible flavour base in dishes.

Please do not think I am dissing sausage sandwiches! I am a regular at the weekend Bunnings sausage sizzle fundraisers. 🙂

Ingredients in Sausage Ragu

Here’s what you need to make this Sausage Ragu. No fancy ingredients!

The sausages

Beef + pork – I like to use a combination of both pork and beef sausages for the perfect balance of flavour and soft texture. Beef sausages provide the flavour whereas the pork provides the tenderness. Pork is a much softer meat than beef! You can use just either beef or pork. If you use only beef, the meat in the sauce will not be as tender. If you use only pork, the meat flavour is more mild. However, to be clear, if I only had one of these sausages, I would not hesitate to make this recipe!:) Sausage quality – Whichever you use, make sure you use good sausages made with more meat and less fillers. Either look at the ingredients list (I aim for 85%+ meat) or look at the sausage – fat specks means better meat, uniform pink colour indicates lots of fillers like the sausages used for fundraiser sausage sizzles (“BBQ sausages”). They can be as low as 55% meat (the rest is flour, maize and non meat things), and often a mix of beef and chicken.Generally speaking, your friendly local butcher is probably the best source. And he can tell you exactly what goes in his sausages! 🙂 Sausage not in casings – In the US it is common to find sausage meat sold like mince/ground beef, not inside the sausage casings. Lucky you! For the rest of us, just squeeze the meat out. It is not hard.

Other ingredients

Here are the other ingredients for the ragu sauce: You can use just either beef or pork. If you use only beef, the meat in the sauce will not be as tender. If you use only pork, the meat flavour is more mild. However, to be clear, if I only had one of these sausages, I would not hesitate to make this recipe!:) Generally speaking, your friendly local butcher is probably the best source. And he can tell you exactly what goes in his sausages! 🙂

Onion, garlic, carrot and celery – These are the vegetables for the soffrito which is cooked over low heat to make them soften and sweeten which then forms the flavour base for the sauce. This is a classic cooking technique used in cuisines all over the world, from Italian to Mediterranean to Cajun to South American! Fennel seeds Secret ingredient! – Sautéed in the soffrito, it adds a little je ne sais quoi into the sauce. Only those with a very, very refined palette can pick that it’s in there! Wine – Red wine adds depth of flavour to the sauce and is also what we use to deglaze the pot. this refers to the method of using a liquid to dissolve gold bits stuck on the base of a cooking vessel (in this case, the sausage meat) into a sauce. Those “gold bits” is called “fond” and it’s free flavour! This is a standard cooking technique you’ll see I use regularly for sauces and stews.Substitute with 0% alcohol wine or more chicken stock. Chicken stock, low sodium – This with canned tomato makes up the bulk of the liquid for the sauce. I use chicken rather than beef stock because it’s a milder flavour so you can taste the meat flavour better. I always used low sodium stock so I don’t have to worry about sauces being too salty. Tomato paste – Just a smidge to boost the tomato flavour and help thicken the sauce. Thyme and bay leaves – The herbs for this pasta sauce. Fresh is best but dried is fine too. Chilli flakes (red pepper flakes) – Optional, for a touch of warmth.

Pappardelle pasta

I like to serve this sausage ragu with pappardelle pasta, the wide thick pasta that is sold coiled up, like pictured. The surface is slightly rough so it’s ideal for tossing with thick hearty sauces like this sausage ragu, shredded beef ragu and chicken ragu which clings to the pasta well. Substitute with 0% alcohol wine or more chicken stock. Having said that though, I’d happily serve sausage ragu with any pasta – short or long!

How to make Sausage Ragu

No different to making your favourite Bolognese – just a little extra time for slow cooking!

Tossing pasta with sauce – essential step!

Why oven instead of stove? Just easier because it’s entirely hands off, just stick it in the oven and leave it. No need to worry about the base catching. This sauce is quite thick so if you do use the stove instead, you’ll need to stir quite regularly. Serve with a shower of freshly grated parmesan. Then, the picture taker in me couldn’t resist finishing with a pinch of parsley, but it’s totally unnecessary in real life and if you came to my house and I made this for you, said pinch of parsley would not be present. This is one for the weekend. For lazy Sundays. Serve with garlic bread, rocket or baby spinach salad with balsamic dressing and finish with tiramisu. Reserve a seat for me at your table!! 🙂 – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

Originally published in February 2016. Recipe improved in February 2024 with improved sauce flavour and consistency, writing tidied up, much improved video. And most important, Life of Dozer section added!SaveSave