This pork sausage ragu is called alla Campidanese in Italian as it’s typical of the Campidano plains in southern Sardinia. I learnt to make it when I was researching A Sardinian Cookbook with chef Giovanni Pilu from Pilu at Freshwater on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The restaurant celebrates its 20th anniversary this month, which is quite a milestone in restaurant land.
From its opening in 2004 – and before that at Cala Luna at The Spit – Giovanni has been committed to sharing a genuine taste of Sardinia with his diners. He’s given many Sydneysiders their first taste of Sardinian specialties such as fregola (like couscous, but toasted and nutty), bottarga (salted, dried mullet roe) and carta di musica (thin, crisp flatbread).
He and his wife, Marilyn, offer a great-value two-course weekday menu and the kiosk beside the restaurant does delicious breakfasts and lunches. If you’re in Sydney it’s well worth checking out, not least for the stunning ocean views.
For a taste of Sardinia at home, try this easy, inexpensive ragu with homemade cicciones pasta or a dried pasta of your choice. It’s easy and fun to make your own cicciones; you’ll find my recipe and a step-by-step video here. As cicciones – meaning ‘little fat ones’ – are quite dense, if using dried pasta try something small with grooves to catch the sauce, such as shells, twists or gnocchetti sardi.
Serves: Four as a main course with salad
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling (60ml)
- 1 red onion, finely diced
- 1 small carrot, peeled and finely diced (about 130g)
- 1 stalk celery heart, finely diced (about 50g)
- salt flakes, to taste
- 3 or 4 Italian-style pork and fennel sausages, skins removed (about 340g)
- 3 teaspoons very finely chopped rosemary leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano (ideally Greek oregano on the stem, crumbled)
- 1 fresh bay leaf, torn
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine (40ml)
- 400g canned peeled tomatoes, crushed
- 1 cup water, or more as needed
- 500g pasta
- 55g freshly grated pecorino (about 1 1/4 cups, ideally Sardinian or Tuscan)
Method
Place oil, onion, carrot, celery and a good pinch of salt in a large frying pan over medium heat, cover and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.
Uncover and cook for a further 10–15 minutes or so, until starting to colour.
Add sausage meat, pressing it out evenly in the pan.
Increase heat to medium–high and cook without stirring for two to three minutes until well browned.
Turn and cook the other side for a further two to three minutes, until cooked through, using a wooden spoon to break it into small pieces.
Stir in rosemary, oregano and bay leaf and cook for a further 30 seconds or so, until aromatic.
Add wine and cook for a few seconds, until it evaporates, stirring well to remove any bits stuck to the base of the pan.
Add tomato and water (use it to rinse out the tomato tin) and stir to combine well, crushing the tomato and meat well with a potato masher or wooden spoon.
Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or so, stirring and crushing regularly, until it forms a sauce thick enough that it doesn’t flow back together when you stir it.
Remove from heat and set aside until ready to serve.
While cicciones are cooking, return sauce to a medium heat.
Scoop cooked cicciones out of the water into the sauce, add three-quarters of the pecorino and a quarter cup of the pasta cooking water and stir to combine well. Add more cooking water if necessary to create a creamy sauce.
Serve into flat pasta bowls, sprinkle with remaining pecorino and drizzle with oil.
You’ll find a print-friendly version of this recipe here as well as a step-by-step video of making lombrichi, another hand-rolled pasta.
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