Pappardelle Bolognese with Lentils and Sausage
Serve this hearty rich pasta with leafy greens like broccoli rabe, kale, or radicchio, either sauteed separately or stirred in to the sauce in the final 10-15 minutes of the lentil cooking time for a true one-pot meal.
Ingredients
- 3-5 tablespoons olive oil extra-virgin
- 8 ounces sweet Italian sausage (pork or turkey)* casings removed
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 small carrot diced
- 1 stalk celery diced
- 1 stalk fresh rosemary about 1 tablespoon fresh leaves finely chopped
- 1 stalk fresh sage about 1 tablespoon fresh leaves finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon red chile flakes more if you prefer a spicy sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes with their juices
- 1 ½ cups water
- ¾ cup French green lentils
- 1 ½ teaspoons Kosher salt plus more as needed
- ½ teaspoon fresh black pepper plus more as needed
- 1 pound pappardelle or other wide ribbon pasta**
- ¼ - ½ cup pasta-cooking water as needed
- 2 tablespoons butter optional
- 1-1 ½ cups Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese grated
- fresh parsley or chives for garnish
Instructions
- Heat 3 tablespoon of the olive oil in a deep 12-inch skillet or a large Dutch oven set over medium heat. Add the onion, stirring until it softens, about 10 minutes. Add the sausage, stirring to break into bite-sized pieces and beginning to brown on all sides, about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, as the onion and then sausage cooks, set up your mise en place for the rest of the dish. Dice your vegetables, mince your garlic, and chop your herbs. Grate the cheese (use a food processor to quickly grate hunks of Parmigiano).
- Stir the diced carrot and celery into the pan and continue cooking another 20 minutes, until the onion is well browned and the vegetables are tender. If the pan seems dry, add a little more of the olive oil to keep things from sticking.
- Stir in the herbs, garlic, and chile flakes, and cook until they become fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and let it brown, about 1-2 minutes more.
- Stir in the whole plum tomatoes together with their juice and the 1 ½ cups water. Break up the tomatoes with your stirring spoon. Mix in the lentils, the 1 ½ teaspoons salt, and the ½ teaspoon pepper. Bring the sauce to a simmer, then cook gently over low heat, until the lentils are tender (about 40-60 minutes, but this depends significantly on the source and age of your lentils). If the sauce begins to dry out towards the end of cooking, add a little more water, chicken broth, or tomato sauce.
- Towards the end of the lentil cooking time, bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until it is just al dente, about 1 minute less than the package/recipe guidance.
- Scoop out some of the pasta cooking water, using a coffee mug or measuring cup, and reserve it for later.
- Drain the pasta and transfer the pasta to a large serving bowl. Toss the pasta with the 2 tablespoons butter (if desired), add a generous splash of the cooking water, the lentil-sausage sauce, and the cheese. Optionally, drizzle with additional olive oil, garnish with chives or parsley, and serve with fresh black pepper and more Parmigiano-Reggiano on the side.
Notes
*If you'd prefer not to use sausage in this sauce, Melissa recommends generously adding olive oil at the end to compensate for the lost richness from the meat.
**Choose a pasta that will match this hearty sauce and let the lentil-sausage-veggie pieces cling to its shape. Any irregularly shaped pasta or wide-cut noodle will work.
The total time assumes you do some of the prep work as the vegetables sweat, but also assumes your lentils take the full time to cook.