I used to avoid celery like the plague but it’s great in this dish and almost undetectable as it's blended with carrots, spring onion and chilli before being cooked down into a sauce. There’s a lot of hidden veg in the pasta and leftovers are a treat as the flavour gets even better when reheated.
The tarts are my favourite bit of the meal and are really easy to make. I couldn't find six deep pastry cases so I used eight shallow ones and the tarts turned out nicely although some did overflow in the oven. We ate them with ice cream rather than crème fraîche specified in the recipe but they also work brilliantly with custard. They freeze well if you can’t get through them in a few days.
Notes
I’ve made a vegetarian version of this dish and a few tweaks are needed. In the TV programme Jamie Oliver talks at length about the importance of good quality sausages. He uses a heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds to complement the pork, which is an issue if you’re using vegetarian sausages. The sausages I used (Tesco Meat Free Lincolnshire Style Sausages) work well in most dishes but they don't have enough flavour to stand up to the fennel and balsamic vinegar. Next time I would halve the fennel and balsamic vinegar to stop the vegetarian sausages from being overpowered.
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Recipe
- Prep20m
- Cook20m
- Total40m
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Pasta
- olive oil
- 4 spring onions
- 1 or 2 fresh red chillies
- 1 carrot
- 1 stick of celery
- 1 six pack of sausages
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400g)
- 500g penne pasta
- small handful basil
- Parmesan cheese (for shaving)
Chicory salad
- 2 red chicory
- 100g bag of rocket and watercress (prewashed)
- Parmesan cheese (for shaving)
- 1 lemon
Seasonings
- olive oil
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
Frangipane tarts
- 6 small shortcrust pastry cases
- 1 egg
- 100g butter
- 100g ground almonds
- 90g golden caster sugar
- 1 orange
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract or paste
- ½ jar raspberry jam (175g)
- 1 tub crème fraîche (250g)
Method
This recipe requires a food processor.
- Preheat the oven to 210°C (190°C fan), fill and boil the kettle and place a large frying pan on a high heat. Add a little olive oil to the frying pan.
- Pasta: Remove the ends from 4 spring onions and 1-2 red chillies and roughly slice. Roughly chop 1 carrot and 1 stick of celery and place in a food processor with the spring onions and chilies. Process for a few seconds until coarse then transfer the vegetables into the frying pan with some olive oil.
- Roughly chop 6 sausages and add them to the food processor along with 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds and 1 teaspoon of oregano. Once processed add the sausages to the frying pan and stir to break them up. Keep checking on them as you get on with the rest of the recipe.
- Place a large saucepan on a medium heat. Fill with the water from the kettle and a little salt.
- Tarts: Place 6 deep pastry cases on a baking tray. Crack 1 egg into a large bowl along with the 100g butter, 100g ground almonds, 90g sugar and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Grate in the zest from half an orange and mix well.
- Spoon a little jam (less than 1 teaspoon) into the pastry cases and top with 1 large teaspoon of the almond mixture. Add another teaspoon of jam then another teaspoon of the almond mixture then place the tarts on the middle shelf of the oven for 18 minutes.
- Pasta: Add 500g of dried pasta to the saucepan and cook as specified on the packet.
- Salad: Trim the bottoms of 2 red chicory and pull the leaves apart. Place on a plate along with a 100g bag of watercress and rocket. Mix well.
- Pasta: Crush 4 garlic cloves into the frying pan that contains the vegetable and sausage mixture then add 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Fry for a few minutes and then add 1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400g).
- Salad: Shave some Parmesan over the salad, season with salt and pepper, then slice 1 lemon into wedges.
- Pasta: Drain the pasta and save some of the starchy water. Transfer the pasta into the frying pan of sauce, stir well and add some of the reserved pasta water if the sauce is too thick. Season well then tip the pasta into a large bowl, grate over some Parmesan and tear up a small handful of basil leaves, scattering over the pasta.
- Tarts: Once the tarts are golden brown, remove from the oven and serve with crème fraîche.
Have you tried?
Have you made Jamie Oliver's Jools' Pasta?
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