SAUSAGE AND EGG BUCATINI
For four I make this dish when I want pasta for breakfast. I also make it when my children ask for it. They like to help me cut the sausagemeat out of the skins and roll it into little balls. I have to admit, I enjoy that part, too. You could, of course, use any pasta shape you like with this sausage and egg sauce, but there is something particularly pleasing about the thickness of the bucatini and the fact that there’s a tiny hole running all the way through it like a straw. My children have fun trying to suck air through the tubes. (If I’m honest, I might occasionally do that, too.) 4 excellent quality spicy Italian sausages
Flaky sea salt
400g dried bucatini
Extra virgin olive oil
6 large egg yolks
150g Parmesan, grated Freshly ground black pepper 1. Start by slicing the sausages lengthways with a very sharp knife and pushing the sausagemeat out into a bowl. Discard the skins. Add a pinch or two of salt and roll the meat into small balls, roughly 5 per sausage, 20 balls in total. Set them aside.
2. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the bucatini according to the packet’s instructions minus 1min.
3. Heat a couple of glugs of olive oil in a very large frying pan with deep sides, and sauté the sausagemeat balls until they are golden brown on all sides. Turn the heat to very low. 4. Beat egg yolks in a mixing bowl and add most of the Parmesan, mixing together thoroughly. 5. Reserve a cup of the starchy pasta cooking water, drain the bucatini, add it to the pan with the sausage balls, and incorporate fully. 6. Turn off the stove, pour in the yolk and cheese mixture and turn over several times, adding several twists of black pepper. Allow the heat of the pasta to warm the egg mixture rather than the stove — this prevents the eggs turning to scramble. Loosen the sauce a little with the reserved pasta water if necessary.
7. Transfer to four warmed bowls, making sure all the sauce is used, and finish with the remaining Parmesan and a final twist of black pepper.