Cavatelli with Italian pork sausage and broad beans

Cavatelli is a small, shell-like pasta with a slightly chewy texture and open shape, perfect for holding sauces and catching every ingredient in each bite. In this dish, it's tossed through a cheesy pecorino sauce with fresh broad beans. This recipe comes from Aaron Ward.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 4 Italian pork sausages (300 g total)
• ½ cup (125 ml) dry white wine
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced into rounds
• 400 g fresh cavatelli pasta
• 200 g broad beans, shelled, double podded
• 1 bunch Tuscan kale, stems removed
• 50 g butter, diced
• 80 g pecorino cheese, finely grated
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• Salt
• 1 bunch mint, leaves picked, to serve
• 100 ml good-quality olive oil, to serve

Instructions

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil over high heat. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
2. Peel the sausages out of their skins, then form into small bite-sized pieces. Add the sausages to the frying pan and cook, turning occasionally, until golden-brown. Add the white wine and garlic to the pan, then allow the wine to reduce. Reduce the heat to low.
3. Cook the fresh cavatelli for 4 minutes, until they begin to float. Add the broad beans and kale to the pan with the pasta and allow to cook for 30 seconds. Reserve 200 ml pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta and vegetables.
4. Add the drained pasta, vegetables, butter and 100 ml pasta cooking water to the pan with the sausages, gently mixing to combine. Gradually add the pecorino cheese to the pan, lightly tossing to form a saucy consistency.
5. Season the sauce to taste with lemon juice, chilli flakes and salt, adding a little more pasta water if needed. Divide the pasta between plates, sprinkle with mint leaves, drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Note

• Cavatelli is a semolina and water pasta, it has a great chewy texture when cooked. If you can’t find cavatelli, any small pasta will work, such as orecchiette, fusilli, small conchiglie or even gnocchi.
• If you don’t have broad beans, substitute with frozen peas, broccoli or asparagus.
• To adapt this recipe for vegetarians, replace the pork sausages with other green vegetables.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.