Bored of your normal beef ragu, this variation is always a crowd pleaser.

The balance of herby sausage, sweet peppers and tomatoes is amazing. It’s easily my favourite pasta dish.

I like to serve it with rigatoni and garlic bread or focaccia. Also try it in a baguette, topped with melted cheese.

The sausages are the key, you need a European style sausage, my preferred combination is chorizo and Sicilian, but Toulouse works as well. The main thing is not to use a British sausage, because the fat content is too high for this dish.

Finally you can up the flavours and increase the veggies in you diet by adding roast veg.

Ingredients

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• 2 peppers (red & green)
• Handful of basil (stalks and leaves)
• 1 pack chorizo style sausages
• 1 pack scilian style sausages
  (Or other continental style sausages)
• 2 tins tomato
• 2 tsp oregano
• Splash of red wine

Kit

• Chefs knife
• Filleting knife
• Veg chopping board
• Raw meat chopping board
• Sauté pan or stock pot

Prep – 15 mins

1. Peel and chop the onion and garlic, put on plate
2. Chop peppers (discarding the centre)
3. place pepper on chopping board stalk down
4. Slice down just inside the width of the flesh
5. Chop into rough chucks
6. Add to the onion and garlic
7. Pick basil leaves from stalks and put to one side
8. Finely chop the basil stalks and add to the garlic, onions & peppers
9. Skin the sausages
10. Using a sharp knife cut down the length of the sausage
11. Using your fingers hold down one side of the skin and with your free hand or the knife push the sausage meat out.
12. I tend to skin 6 sausages at a time, chop them up and the put on a plate

Cooking

1. Heat the pan on a medium heat
2. Add oil
   (If you are unsure whether the oil is hot enough add a small piece of onion and wait until it starts to sizzle)
3. Add the garlic, peppers and basil stalks to the pan
4. Stir occasionally
5. After around 5 minutes they should have softened.
6. Turn up the heat to high, add the sausages and mix well
7. The sausages need around 10 minutes, every few minutes give the pan a stir, making sure you free all the sausage meat
   (The aim is nicely browned sausage meat and the majority of the juice has evaporated off)
8. Once most of the juice has gone turn the heat back down to medium and add the wine.
9. Once the sizzling has stopped add the oregano and tomatoes and bring to a simmer.
10. Turn down the heat so it is just bubbling and leave for 30 minutes.
11. At this point you can add roasted veg
12. After 15 mins put your pasta on
13. When the pasta is done, drain and add to the sauce.
14. Switch the heat of and leave for 3-5 mins. Set the table, crack open a beer etc.
15. Serve