Pasta Salsiccia
e Funghi (o Melanzane)
Sausage with mushrooms, or sausage with eggplant
Sausage browned with garlic and white wine, then joined by sautéed porcini — or, in the warmer months, fried eggplant cubes instead. A classic of Sunday lunch in Campania, especially in autumn, finished with a generous dusting of Pecorino Romano.
This is one of the great Sunday-lunch pastas of the Campanian autumn, when porcini start showing up at the market and sausage is already a pantry constant. The sausage is browned first, with garlic and a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan, and then the mushrooms — porcini if you can get them, champignon otherwise — join it, sautéed separately and then combined. A generous dusting of Pecorino Romano at the end ties the whole thing together into something rich enough for a proper Sunday table.
The eggplant version is the same idea shifted into summer, when mushrooms are out of season but eggplant is at its best: fried cubes of eggplant standing in for the porcini, everything else about the method unchanged. Neither version is more correct than the other — they belong to different seasons, which is the whole point of having two versions of the same dish.
A classic of Sunday lunch, especially in autumn. Sausage and mushrooms in the cold months, sausage and eggplant in the warm ones — the same dish, following the calendar.
The recipe
For six. Rigatoni or penne rigate hold the sausage crumbles and mushroom pieces well.
Pasta Salsiccia e Funghi (o Melanzane) — the two versions of this Neapolitan sausage pasta. Click to enlarge.
500 gNeapolitan sausage, crumbled
2 clovesGarlic
½ cupDry white wine
400 g, cleaned and slicedPorcini (or champignon) mushrooms — or 2 medium eggplants, cubed, for the summer version
To tasteExtra virgin olive oil
Grated, generouslyPecorino Romano
To tasteSalt and black pepper
500 gRigatoni or penne rigate
1
Remove the sausage from its casing and crumble it into a wide pan with a drizzle of oil and the garlic. Brown over medium heat, breaking it up as it cooks.
2
Deglaze with the white wine and let it evaporate for a minute or two.
3
Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms separately in a little oil until golden and tender — or, for the summer version, fry the eggplant cubes until golden and drain on paper towels.
4
Combine the sausage and the mushrooms (or eggplant) in the pan. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm over low heat.
5
Cook the pasta, drain, and toss with the sauce. Finish with a generous dusting of Pecorino Romano and serve immediately.
Related sausage pastas
Penne con salsiccia e carciofi
My mother's two-pan method — sausage crumbled and browned separately, artichokes cooked slowly, combined at the end. See
the full recipe.
Salsiccia e friarielli
The classic pairing of sausage with Neapolitan broccoli rabe, more often a secondo than a pasta sauce. See
the full recipe.
Buon appetito.
