This is by far our most popular dish. It's renowned as a hangover curative among our friends and the 10-to-1 favorite for what a guy will order on a first date. (His date will almost always order the Sweet Potato Ravioli in Cheese Broth. It just works that way.)
Two small but important notes on this otherwise very easy recipe: cutting the sausage into coins is advantageous because sliced sausage has more surface area to brown, and browned sausage is better. Also, the sauce is browned butter. It's a stage of doneness, something we were taught in cooking school: beurre noisette. It should be visibly browned, with a hazelnut-like aroma. Don't skimp on the browning.
Ingredients
- 1 pound hot sausage
- 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8-10 sage leaves
- Freshly ground white pepper
- 1 pound Frankies 457 Cavatelli
- 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano
- 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
Step by step
- Put a large pot of water on to boil and salt it well.
- Using a wide sauté pan, add 1 tablespoon of the butter to the pan and turn the heat to medium-high. After a minute, add the sausage coins in an even layer and let them cook, untouched, unstirred, unfussed with, until they're deeply browned on the first side. Flip and brown them on the B side. When the sausage is browned, remove it from the pan and return the pan to the burner.
- Keep the heat at medium-high and add the sage, the remaining 6 tablespoons of butter, and a few twists of white pepper. Stir the butter and scrape at the browned bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. That's when you should drop the cavatelli into the boiling water. After a minute or two, the butter should stop foaming and start to take on color. Continue to cook the butter until it's deeply browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes more.
- Do not drain the cavatelli too thoroughly. The water clinging to the pasta will give the sauce body. Add it to the butter sauce along with the sausage and stir.
- Add the cheese, stir again, and portion the cavatelli among serving plates. Scatter each with a couple of pinches of parsley. Serve immediately.