Calabrian Fusilli
So this pasta is something we never grew up on. As far as I can tell, according to my mother, Grandpa may have made this once or twice, but he died a long time ago. The type of pasta is from his area of Italy and definitely will take a few more tries to get it perfected. The dough I used was also a traditional one with just flour and water with a little salt. I highly recommend using equal parts AP flour and Semolina but for this time I used only AP. Fusilli is a spiral type of pasta that sort of resembles a screw. The store bought kind are typically not what it looks like when homemade. I have been looking for the specific "ferro" tool used to perfect these but until then I used an old coat hanger. I combine a few specific flavors to the Calabrian region for the sauce and the outcome was AMAZING!. Frank's Calabrian Fusilli.
Ingredients:
Sauce:
- 1 lb ground Italian sweet sausage
- 12 oz tomato sauce
- 1/2 diced white onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 cup chopped green olives
- 1 cup white wine
- Pinch rosemary
- Pinch sage
- Salt/ pepper
Pasta:
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
1. Make the Fusilli. Simply combine the flour, salt, and water into a ball. Kneed for roughly 5-10 minutes until dough is firm and soft at same time. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for over an hour.
2. To make the pasta, cut off chunks of the dough and roll into long slender snake like shapes. Pinch off about a 1/2 inch chunk and gently with a ferro, or in this case a coat hanger, roll and spin around to make the traditional spiral shape. Continue until all noodles are complete. Cook in boiling water for roughly 5 minutes. (See below Video).
3. Make the sauce. In a large saute pan brown the ground sausage until cooked through.
4. Add in chopped onion and cook until tender. Then toss in garlic.
5. Pour in white wine and simmer until reduced.
6. Add in tomato sauce, olives, sage, and rosemary and bring to a low simmer. Cover and cook about 10 minutes.
7. Toss with pasta and serve immediately.
Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2+
This dish was just perfect and I am sure my grandpa would be proud. I definitely need to practice making this kind of pasta though. Practice makes perfect!
