A Pasta Dish So Good, You’ll Think it’s From an Italian Restaurant
If I were to make one Italian dish for the rest of my life, it would be this sausage and mushroom pappardelle. Every time we make this my husband, Eric, looks at me and says, “this is restaurant good.” And he’s right.
With our busy schedules and the cost of babysitters, it isn’t often that Eric and I get a dinner out at a nice restaurant. If we do go anywhere, it’s usually with the kids in tow to a restaurant that serves chicken tenders. *Sighs. With that in mind, we don’t give a second thought to splurging on some quality ingredients to throw into a dish. Especially one that tastes like it’s from a restaurant, such as this sausage and mushroom pappardelle.
What is Pappardelle, anyway?
If you’re wondering what pappardelle is, it’s a type of long, flat, ribbon-like pasta that is either made in the traditional manner or with egg. I found the best dried pappardelle I have ever had, made by De Cecco,at a local gourmet grocer. For this recipe we used egg pappardelle. If you can’t find pappardelle, a wide egg noodle used instead. I have seen other recipes suggest fettuccine as a replacement, but I truly think the egg noodle here adds more flavor.
The Sausage and Sauce Make This Dish
The sausage we use for this dish is bulk Italian, and made on-site at the aforementioned gourmet grocer. It’s worth the extra dollar or so for the fresh stuff, as opposed to the frozen tubes one can find at any grocery store.
amzn_assoc_placement = “adunit0”; amzn_assoc_search_bar = “true”; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = “thehouseandhi-20”; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = “manual”; amzn_assoc_ad_type = “smart”; amzn_assoc_marketplace = “amazon”; amzn_assoc_region = “US”; amzn_assoc_title = “My Amazon Picks”; amzn_assoc_linkid = “1c97492c5c0e1345401c5629d91c88ce”; amzn_assoc_asins = “1400052580,B00EZS5PEO,B0095F92HS,B007RPYRRI”; //z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/onejs?MarketPlace=USThe sauce for this sausage and mushroom pappardelle is simple. It is made from the pan juices from cooking the sausage, butter, and reserved pasta water. It’s a sauce I never knew existed until several years ago when I started cooking from a cookbook by Giada De Laurentiis, Everyday Italian. It’s so simple and allows for the flavors of the dish to shine through without being overpowered by a dense tomato or cream sauce.
I’ve mentioned before that my kids are sort of picky when it comes to what they’ll eat. This dish is easy to deconstruct to just sausage and noodles. I reserved some sausage and then buttered some plain pappardelle noodles. Since this is egg based pasta, the kids were thrilled with the flavor. They also had a blast eating the long pappardelle ribbons.
If you give this recipe a shot, makes sure you leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts. If you liked this recipe, you might also like our Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash. Don’t forget to pin it to Pinterest to save it!
Sausage & Mushroom Pappardelle
An authentic Italian pasta dish with sausage and mushrooms and a light sauce.
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 9 ounces Italion sausage, casings removed
- 1 Onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove Garlic, minced
- 1 pound Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
- 2 tbsp Fresh thyme leaves
- 1/2 tsp Red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 tbsp Butter
- 1/2 cup Fresh parsley for garnish
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- 8 oz Egg Pappardelle Pasta (Can substitute extra wide egg noodle)
- 1/2 cup Pasta water
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add sausage, garlic, and onion. Break up sausage with a spoon. Cook until onions are tender and golden, about 7 minutes, taking care not to burn the garlic. Add the mushrooms, fresh thyme, and red pepper flakes. Cook and stir frequently, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat season with salt and pepper.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and pappardelle. Cook about 6 minutes until pasta is al dente. Reserve a 1/2 cup cooking liquid, and drain pasta. Return pasta to pot.
Add butter to mushroom mixture along with the pasta water. Return mushroom mixture to pot and toss to combine. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and shredded Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.
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