Gigli Piselli
The idea of pasta and peas was introduced to me many years ago as a Roman dish. It was just an idea, not a tangible plate that I could wrap my taste buds around. I pictured spaghetti and meatballs but with peas. No thanks! That’s disrespectful to a meatball.
Some time later, I revisited the idea of peas and pasta while enjoying my usual snack of toast dipped in Alfredo sauce. Newton had his apple, and June had her carbs.
Now this whole idea of pasta and peas being an actual thing made sense! I made a pasta with peas and sausage tossed in an Alfredo sauce. And it was amazing. Tossed in a jarred Alfredo sauce. It has a complete flavor profile hitting the salty, sweet, spicy, and bitter points all in the same bite. As a comfort food, it hugs just right.
This has never existed as a recipe, per se. For me it was always a series of ingredients that just go together, a process taken to heart and memorized. Of everything that I have cooked, this has changed the least.
Of everything that I have cooked, this has changed the most.
It was simple: Start the water to boil on the back left burner, the saucepan to simmer on the front left, and the skillet to sizzle on the front right burner. It’s a ballet of multitasking that usually flows together beautifully. In the beginning the Alfredo came from a jar, so that just needed to be warmed through. Regulating the heat for that was always a breeze. 1 lb sausage set to brown and crumble in heated olive oil. Cook the pasta. Drain the pasta. Transfer sausage to mixing bowl with pasta, toss in frozen peas. Blend in Alfredo to coat. And serve.
Simple and delicious!
It’s next few iterations involved playing with onions. Diced and sautéed until translucent. Sliced and deeply caramelized.
(There may or may not have been a secret combination of herbs at one point.)
Today’s version for 2020 features shiitake mushrooms, and a healthier dose of sausage. Afterall, who couldn’t use a little more sausage in their lives! It ups the ante on the savory; tighten’s the embrace on comfort food’s hug.
Gigli Piselli
Ingredients
- 16 oz Gigli or Campanelle pasta
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 1½ lb Italian sausage
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 white onion sliced
- 5 oz shiitake mushrooms sliced
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp crushed red pepper
- 1 recipe Alfredo sauce
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Bring 4 qt. salted water to a rolling boil. Cook pasta according to instructions in salted water. Drain pasta, then transfer to mixing bowl.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium-high. Add sausage to skillet to brown, using a spatula to break up sausage. Remove with slotted spoon, and set aside.
- In the same skillet, sauté onions and mushrooms – seasoned with salt, black pepper, and red pepper – until they begin to caramelize. Transfer onion/mushroom mixture [and any remaining pan juices] to the same bowl as the sausage.
- Meanwhile, make the Alfredo sauce.
- Add sausage, onion, and mushroom mixture to pasta and toss to combine. Fold in frozen peas – the residual heat from the pasta and sausage will cook the peas to perfection. Fold in Alfredo sauce to coat thoroughly.
Notes
June
