Serves 2
for the pasta:
Pinch of saffron
200g fine semolina
for the sauce:
1 onion
½ bulb of fennel
1 red pepper
400g good quality sausages
3 beef tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp tomato puree
150ml white wine
200ml chicken stock
20g parmesan
salt and olive oil
Pour 100ml of boiling water into a heatproof jug, and add a few threads of saffron. Give it a mix, then leave it to cool down until it is warm.
Pour your semolina onto a clean work surface, and make a well in the middle. Remove your saffron from the water (it will have turned yellow), and pour your water into the well. Mix it with a knife, flicking semolina into the middle but without breaching the walls of semolina you’ve built, until you have a sticky dough.
Once all your semolina is incorporated, knead your dough until it is smooth and less sticky than it was before. Wrap it in cling film, then leave it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Finely dice your onion and fennel.
Heat a large shallow casserole dish over a medium-high heat. Add a little olive oil, then squeeze in your sausage meat, discarding the skins. Cook these for 5 minutes, breaking up the sausage meat with a spoon to give you a mince-like texture, and they have lightly browned. Remove the sausage from a pan with a slotted spoon, and set aside in a bowl.
Add a little more olive oil, and tip in your onion and fennel. Turn the heat down to medium-low, and add a splash of water to deglaze the pan. Cook these for about 15 minutes until they are softened.
Meanwhile, finely dice your red pepper. Tip that in with your onion and fennel, and cook for another 10 minutes.
Halve your tomatoes, then grate them directly into a bowl on the coarsest side of a box grater.
Grate your garlic into the pan, and get your chilli flakes and tomato puree in there too. Cook for 2 minutes.
Pour your wine into the pan and let it reduce down by half, then tip in your grated tomato, chicken stock and your sausage meat. Bring it up to a boil, then simmer it very gently for 1 hour.
Get back to your pasta. Unwrap your dough, and portion it into 4 sections. Rewrap 3 of your sections. Roll your remaining dough piece into a long worm shape about 2cm wide. Chop this worm into 2cm chunks.
Take a gnocchi board, or the back of a fork, and place a piece of dough on it. Push your dough forwards with the side of your thumb to curl it up into a small shell shape, patterned with the lines of the board or fork. This is your cavatelli. Repeat this with your remaining dough sections, until you have lots of little pasta shapes. Sprinkle a large baking tray with your remaining semolina, and pour your cavatelli into it. Let it dry out for at least 30 mins (or up to 8 hours in advance) to get a bit leathery.
Once your sauce is done, season it up with salt and pepper. Remove about ⅓ of it, and pop it in an airtight container in the freezer for a treat another day.
Bring a large pan of water to a boil, and season it with salt as if it was a soup you are about to eat. Tip in your cavatelli, and simmer for 4 minutes.
Add a little pasta water to your sauce, then lift your pasta directly into your sauce with a slotted spoon. Give it a good mix, adding more pasta water as you need to get it glossy.
Spoon your pasta into bowls, then spoon over a little olive oil and grate over parmesan. Serve it up.