I’ve never really been a major fan of fennel, it always seemed like one of those fancy vegetables that chefs use that doesn’t really taste of anything – this was my view a few years ago because now I love it! The aniseed flavour goes well in so many dishes and this Sausage Pappardelle recipe that uses both fresh fennel and fennel seeds in abundance has become a family favourite and we eat it regularly in our house.
The original recipe takes more than 2 hours to cook, uses red wine and instructs that you must make your own pasta, which I don’t – perhaps I should, but that’s a skill that I’m far from mastering. These days I don’t have 2-hours for a leisurely cooking session and I’m all over quick family healthy meals that can be served from the hob to the plate in less than 30 minutes. My adapted version of this recipe is ready in just over 30 minutes and is packed full of a rainbow of vegetables.
- 1 fennel diced
- 1 aubergine diced
- 1 butternut squash diced
- 1 courgette diced
- 6 Cumberland sausages (leave out if you want a vegetarian meal)
- 400 g passata
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
- Seasonings
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Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
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Prepare the vegetables and dice them into small pieces, lie them flat on a grease proof baking sheet and drizzle with a 2 tbsp of coconut oil. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cooked through and set aside. This can be done ahead of time.
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Whilst the vegetables are roasting, take the sausages and remove the meat from the skin.
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In a pan heat a little coconut oil and add the diced fennel and sausage meat and cook slowly for 10 minutes. Breakdown the sausage meat using a wooden spoon so it resembles mince meat.
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Add the grated garlic, fennel seeds and chilli flakes and cook for 2 minutes before adding the passata.
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Allow the pasta sauce to simmer on a low-medium heat for 15-20 minutes until it has thickened and reduced.
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At the very end, remove the roasted vegetables from the oven and stir into the sauce.
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Season to taste and serve on top of courgetti or your favourite pasta.
Cooking time includes roasting the vegetables which can be done ahead of time. If you are leaving out the sausage meat the cooking time is significantly reduced.
Adapted from Jamie Oliver
If you are struggling to get your family to eat more vegetables then a pasta sauce is the perfect way to bulk up their intake. This recipe contains 4 vegetables in the sauce alone and can easily be bumped up to 5 if you decide to serve it with courgetti instead of pasta. Seriously, my spiraliser has revolutionised my meal times when I’ve planned a pasta dish for dinner for the family but don’t actually feel like eating pasta.
We got 4 decent sized portions from this recipe because all the vegetables really pack out the sauce. Of course, this can easily be made vegetarian by leaving out the sausage meat, which would still leave a hearty sauce, alternatively you could bulk it up with some lentils or beans.
I’m not a huge fan of fennel but I absolutely love courgette. The dish looks delicious.
Thank you Izabela. Glad to hear you love fennel too.
Love all the flavours in this dish, fennel works really well with pork. I enjoy trying different dishes with my spiraliser, who knew courgettes go well with so many foods.
Thank you Tina. Courgettes are so versatile I stick them in so many things to ‘bulk’ them out.
This sounds so yummy. I’ve had courgetti but never squash spaghetti I might need to try and make it x
I’ve never had squash spaghetti either and would be interested in trying that too. 😉
Mmmm proper comfort food, this! I’m wanting to try this courgetti – but I need to get myself a spiralizer from somewhere first!
They are quite a popular instrument to have in the kitchen these days and you can pick them up anyway. It certainly is very comforting!
This looks great Jemma, such a good flavour combo!
Thanks Sophie!
I only tried fennel for the first time earlier in the year and I am a big fan. I agree, that the flavour goes really well with sausage.
I thought I was the only late one to the fennel party…it’s got such a lovely flavour!
Ooh no not a fennel fan at all. It’s that liquoricey taste I can’t stand. Other than that though the recipe sounds right up my street!
It’s defintiely not everyone’s cup of tea and it took me a while to get used to it, but I love it now. 🙂
Jemma, this recipe sounds absolutely GORGEOUS! I’ve never been that big a fan of fennel, my Mum always adds it in abundance to the Nigella Greek Salad recipe which has more often than not, been the only thing I’ve enjoyed having it in. However, having seen it in so many recipes I’ve wanted to try recently, I think I may have to bite the bullet and just try it in other things. I’ve never really been a fan of aniseed-y, liquorice tasting foods but it’s funny how your taste buds change…
I haven’t really made too many courgetti recipes lately, mainly because I despise cleaning my spiraliser, and because courgetti bolognese can get a little repetitive! This sounds so scrummy, however, and it’s definitely something I’d love to try out. I’ll let you know how I get on…!
She’s So Lucy
Thanks Lucy!!! 🙂 It is funny how your tastebuds ‘mature’ with you, I was the same about olives for so long and now I love them. Oh, cleaning the spiraliser is such a pain isn’t it! Definitely worth the effort in the end though I think. I tend to leave mine to soak in the sink for a bit and that helps. Let me know how you get on with the recipe! 🙂
I love fennel! But I normally use the seeds and not the actually vegetable. Sounds really nice – pinning. 🙂
The vegetable has such a lovely freshness about it compared to the seeds, definitely worth a try.
That looks so good!!! I am going to have to make this at some point!
Thank you! Let me know if you try it some time. 🙂
This looks so good! Did you cook the zucchini pasta or was that served raw?
Thank you. I left it raw as I prefer it that way.
I love my spiraliser and so does my son! Really love the sauce here with crumbled sausage meat and the fennel is a very Italian combination too.
It’s so great that your son loves your spiraliser too. A great fun way to get kids to eat more veggies!
Gorgeous dish!!! I too was never a fan of fennel as a kid…I never understood the licorice flavor all together…oh boy was I mistaken!!! isn’t great that we evolve, grow and change!!!! Lovely pictures by the way!!
Thank you1 Same here, the taste has definitely grown on me as I’ve got older.
I’ve only recently tried fennel and now I’m in love – especially when combined with sausage. Love this!
They go so well together don’t they!
I love fennel and have been looking for new recipes to try with my spiralizer. Thanks for sharing, this looks delicious!
This actually looks delicious! I have never tried fennel before but always wanted to, so this gives me a wonderful reason!