Fregola with sausage & tomato sauce

(serves 2 | 50 minutes | easy)

You can’t get more Sardegna than this dish, which combines the region’s traditional pasta with its classic sausage and fennel ragù. The perfect recipe to make a batch of so that it can last a few meals.

1 small pork sausage – 1 small onion – 115g fregola – ½ tsp dry fennel seeds – 200ml passata – pecorino sardo or parmigiano – extra virgin olive oil – salt and pepper 

  1. Bring 2 litres of water to boil in a pot, then dice the onion finely and place it in a second pot with a few tablespoons of olive oil on low heat. 
  2. Let the onion sizzle and add the fennel seeds. Once the onion is soft, add the sausage which you’ve also cut into small chunks, mix well. 
  3. Once the sausage has browned, pour in the passata and mix, letting everything bubble for a few minutes. 
  4. Pour in the fregola and begin stirring, to make sure it is all covered in sauce. Add two ladles of boiling water little by little, waiting for the fregola to absorb most of it before adding more. Repeat this until the fregola is al dente (should take between 30 and 40 minutes). 
  5. Once the fregola is cooked, you can either leave it in the pot and reheat it quickly before serving, so that all the juices absorb nicely, or serve it immediately. Before serving, season to taste with salt and pepper. Once plated, pour a dollop of olive oil over each dish and sprinkle with pecorino sardo or parmigiano.