Rich, creamy and earthy; a grand lunch after you've been mushroom hunting in the woods!
This is a dish from Lazio, but you will find a version in most wooded regions of Italy. Originally the sausage would be wild boar: you'd make this when you got your camp organised during a foraging expedition in the woods. The brandy might seem incongruous, but I know boar hunters who carried it with them and would burn a glug in the frying pan with many meals!
INGREDIENTS
walnuts
good Italian sausage - NOT the things called "Italian" in supermarkets
mushrooms
fresh rosemary
sage leaves
brandy (I used Armagnac)
pepper
egg
Dolcelatte cheese - although any creamy blue cheese will do
tagliatelle
Watch the video
METHOD
Pre heat the oven to 160ºC
Chop the walnuts into quarters, pop them on a tray and in the oven for 7 minutes
Coarsely slice the mushrooms
Split the sausages and scoop out the meat
Melt butter in a pan - with a drop of olive oil to stop it burning
Add fresh rosemary and sage leaves to the butter
Add the sausage meat and mushrooms, and stir through
Cook them for about 10 minutes
Add the toasted walnuts
Stir them through
Add a good plug of brandy and light it
Add black pepper
Add water from the cooking pasta
Whisk your egg
Crumble a handful of cheese into the pan and stir it through
Add the pasta - don't drain it, just lift it from the pot: the water it carries is good
Take the pan off the heat and add the whisked egg
Serve with grated pecorino or toasted breadcrumbs