Spaghetti cooked in its sauce

By: Jim McDougall, Stefano de Pieri
From: Nuovo Mondo
Makes: 2
Photographer: Alan Benson

Stefano: Accompany this dish with a delicious pilsener. I like the idea of a spicy dish with the lingering bitterness of a refreshing beer. The method here is unconventional but gives a great result.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1 tsp	unsalted butter
	olive oil, for cooking
1	large pork sausage, skin removed and broken into small pieces
2	garlic cloves, chopped
1	red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
1	punnet cherry tomatoes, chopped
	salt and freshly ground black pepper
100g	spaghetti
1	handful basil leaves
1	handful of chopped herbs such as parsley or chives, optional
1	handful freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
	extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling (optional)

Method

Heat the butter with a little olive oil in a frying pan over medium– high heat and add the sausage and fry until nicely coloured and cooked throughout. Set aside.
Heat some olive oil in large frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and chilli and cook until coloured. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a saucepan of lightly salted water. Add the spaghetti to the frying pan and spread it out over the tomatoes. Add two small ladlefuls of the hot water (this floods the pan a bit like when cooking risotto). Bring to a simmer and shake the pan or separate the spaghetti with a wooden spoon. When the liquid has reduced, add more water; eventually the spaghetti will lose its stiffness. Continue in this manner and taste as you go (when you are more familiar with the process you will be able to easily gauge how things are developing).
When the pasta is nearly cooked, add the sausage and the basil and other herbs as desired.
Continue cooking until the liquid has reduced. Should the spaghetti feel nearly cooked and you think you have too much liquid in the pan then simply pour it out – but that should be avoided if possible.
Sprinkle generously with the cheese and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil if you like the flavour and gloss.