This hearty pasta dinner layers flavors of Italian sausage, onion, fennel bulb, crushed red pepper, tomato and Parmesan deliciously. Adapted from Lidia’s Favorite Recipes. Recipe below.
WHEN DOES LIDIA MATTICCHIO BASTIANICH SLEEP? The star of PBS’s popular Lidia’s Italy, she is also chef/owner of restaurants in New York, Pittsburgh and Kansas City. She’s a partner (with son Joe, Mario Batali and Oscar Farinetti) in New York’s wildly successful Eataly. She and son Joe have a winery in Italy. Lidia and her daughter Tanya design a line of cookware (they’ve also launched a line of pastas and sauces). Oh. And in her spare time, she writes cookbooks.
Her most recent is Lidia’s Favorite Recipes: 100 Foolproof Italian Dishes, from Basic Sauces to Irresistible Entrees, published just last month. She calls it her “most accessible cookbook to date, a gathering of recipes that have become her go-to meals for her very own family.” These are not the deconstructed or re-imagined recipes you’ll find in some chefs’ cookbooks (not that there’s anything wrong with that approach). The recipes here reflect yet another of Lidia’s roles, one she takes great pride in—that of Italian grandmother or nonna.
Much as grand-mères are responsible for the simple, perfect meals that I most cherish in French cuisine, nonnas have long been the source for the best of traditional Italian food. They get meals on the family table and pass their culinary skills and techniques on to daughters and granddaughters, keeping classic recipes alive. You’ll find many of them here, from veal osso buco to escarole and white bean soup, olive oil mashed potatoes, eggplant Parmigiana and savory seafood stew. Lidia’s Favorite Recipes is particularly rich in pasta dishes. That’s where I decided to start exploring.
I love when recipes teach me something. When I first started cooking, once something went into the pan, it was in there. Period. Then one day, I came across a recipe that had you brown an ingredient—probably meat of some sort—and remove it from the pan while you completed other steps, then return it to the pan for finishing. It was a revelation. Now it’s standard operating procedure to me, of course. Well, this recipe uses my earlier cooking style, layering flavor upon flavor as you keep adding ingredients to the pan. And it does it in a way that nonnas have always done, I think.
Besides being fairly quick and easy to prepare, this dish is just fun to cook. You put something in the pan and cook it for a bit, then make a hole in the center of the pan and add the next ingredient. After that cooks for a minute or two, you mix everything together and then make a hole for the next ingredient. The recipe was so simple and rustic, I was expecting good but basic. What I got was transcendent.
Ziti with Sausage and Fennel
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound ziti (see Kitchen Notes)
- salt
- 1/2 pound mild Italian sausage
- 1 fennel bulb, 1 pound or slightly less
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and sliced into half moons
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped fennel fronds
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt generously and add ziti. Cook until not quite al dente, about 2 minutes less than recommended cooking time. Drain, reserving 2 cups of pasta water. Do NOT rinse (see Kitchen Notes). Set aside.
- While the water comes to a boil and the pasta cooks, assemble the other ingredients. If the sausage is not bulk, remove from casings and break the meat up with your fingers.
- Using a sharp knife, slice off the root end of the fennel bulb and the stalks with the fronds. Reserve the stalks and fronds. Slice the bulb in half lengthwise and peel off the tough outer layer. Cut out the inner core and slice the bulb halves crosswise into about 1/4-inch slices. You'll probably end up with more than the 2 cups you need. You can save it for another use or go ahead and have a little more fennel in this dish.
- Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet with high sides—I used a sauté pan—over medium flame. Add the sausage and cook for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, breaking the meat up more with a wooden spoon. Push the sausage to the sides of the pan and add the onion in the center. Cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes, then mix the onion and the sausage together.
- Create a hole in the middle again and add the fennel. Cook for a minute or so, stirring occasionally, then mix with the meat and onions. Season lightly with salt and then clear yet another hole.
- Add the crushed red pepper and toast for about 30 seconds. Toss to combine and make one final hole. Add the tomato paste and cook until just sizzling, 1 or 2 minutes, mashing it with the back of a wooden spoon.
- Ladle in 1-1/2 cups of the reserved pasta water. Stir well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer the sauce for 5 to 6 minutes. Flavors will develop, the sauce will thicken slightly and the fennel will soften a bit (you want it to remain slightly crunchy, so don't overcook).
- Add the pasta to the pan. It will be sticking together, but don't be alarmed. As you gently toss it with the sauce, much of it will loosen up on its own. With the more stubborn pairs of tubes, insinuate the edge of a spatula between them, and they will separate. Cook for 2 minutes or so to let the pasta absorb some of the sauce and finish cooking. Add the fennel fronds and toss to combine. If the dish is seeming a bit too dry, drizzle on a little more pasta water and mix it in.
- Remove the pan from the heat, sprinkle the grated cheese over the pasta and toss it in. Serve immediately in shallow pasta bowls.
What a wonderful giveaway. There will never be enough Italian recipes in my recipe file.
Lidia’s recipes are always so easy. And , you just can’t have enough Italian cookbooks.
Some wonderful recipes to share with our guests at David’s Refuge, a non profit Bed and Breakfast for parents of special needs children!
This looks like a great meal to cook next week after several days of leftover turkey. Thanks for the giveaway.
The few times I’ve made ziti it’s been boring. Maybe the fennel was what it needed. I’ll definitely try this recipe. Especially for my oldest son who is pasta crazy. I have to wait a few more weeks to be able to order the Taste of Treme book from last week as it is not available in Canada yet. I will probably add this to my order as well.
Randi, I generally view pasta as just a vehicle for whatever sauce and match the shape to the texture of the sauce and what we feel like eating at the moment. Fortunately, the Italians have been wildly inventive in creating pasta shapes; we generally have half a dozen or so on hand. And keep your fingers crossed—you may not need to order this book after all!
Terry take me out of the contest as I’ve just ordered it along with the Taste of Treme book. Until the next contest! I have to work on my Lasagna too. I’m never happy with it. Maybe I should stop using commercial pasta sauces. Hopefully there will be something similar in this book. Thanks!
Randi, you’ll find some sauce recipes in this book that may help you. Sometimes on a weeknight, I’ll doctor up a jar of commercial pasta sauce, but I find my best results usually start with a recipe for homemade sauce. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a cook-for-hours project; some are crazy easy and fast.
Sounds great – keep them coming!!! Enjoy your site.
This recipe sounds amazing. I love the fennel and sausage combination!
I’ve always respected Blue Kitchen and applauded their creative recipes but to become a shill for someone who is and has been involved in multiple lawsuits for dishonest business practices against her employees is absolutely tasteless. The decision to celebrate a person of such questionable character raises concerns of Blue Kitchen’s credibility.
Bryant, I appreciate your viewpoint on this. I honestly had forgotten about the lawsuits against the restaurants of the Bastianich family and Mario Batali. The suits were settled in May, as I understand. Unfortunately, in cash businesses such as restaurants and bars, there are many dark corners and plenty of skimming on all sides. The culture not only accepts it, but breeds it. Also unfortunately, only the biggest names show up on our radar screens. All this said, whenever we are offered anything to review—books or products—we accept with this caveat. If we like the book or product, we will write about it, saying why we like it. If we don’t, we won’t cover it here. As fun as snarky reviews are to read—and to write—that’s not what Blue Kitchen is about. Again, Bryant, I understand why this piece upset you. I hope you will understand this response and continue to read.
How do you print this recipe???
Lidia’s Favorite Recipes will join My Calabria, The Italian Country Table, Molto Italiano and Everyday Italian as the most used cookbooks on my bookshelf.
I can’t wait to try this recipe. Visiting Italy a few years ago was a real eye-opener, and our kitchen hasn’t been the same since. Hope everyone has a happy holiday!
I’ve been working hard on making homemade pasta and have just begun making tubular noodles. This recipe comes just in time (and winning the cookbook would be an awesome bonus!)
Julie, creating printable recipes is on my too long list of things to do for the blog. Sorry. For now, please just copy the recipe portion of the post and paste it into a Word document.
I love “Lidia’s Italy” on PBS. My husband and I watch her almost every weekday evening on WGBH-Create in Boston. [Thank you, WGBH.] When Lidia tastes her dishes, we both say, in unison with her, “M-m-mmm!” Just last evening, we watched her show on pesto and we were both drooling. [And my husband is a constant, loyal follower of Blue Kitchen!]
This looks so easy I think even I could follow this recipe.
It looks as delicious as it always does, Terry.
I love Lidia and watch her on PBS. Hope I win. Thanks for the giveaway.
This caught my attention after all the turkey I’ve been eating. I love the uncased Italian sausage available at Whole Foods and this will be a perfect recipe to showcase it!
Yum, yum, yum! This is my kind of recipe. I always use penne, so maybe I should go a little crazy and try ziti! Thanks for blazing the trail…
I’m hungry, and have got my fingers crossed.
Lidia’s show on PBS is my favorite cooking show. I love her — and I love Blue Kitchen!
Ok, I just paid a visit to my scary Italian grocer and I have all the ingredients. It just sounded too good.
Altadenahiker, I’m probably going to regret asking, but what precisely makes your Italian grocer scary?
This was delicious. I used penne, since I couldn’t find ziti in the shop, and I upped the tomato paste. I also cooked the onions until they were almost caramelized. We’ll be making this again!
oh my gosh, I love the look of this recipe!
we are so going to make it! hooray! thanks for posting this, Terry.
I love sausage and love fennel. This just made it up to the top of a list of things to make soon.
Glad you liked it, Kristy! And your tweaks sound delicious. That’s one of the fun things about cooking for me, taking recipes and making them my own.
Jackie, pork in general plays so well with fennel, doesn’t it? Look for another example here in a couple of weeks.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never cooked with fennel – this recipe sounds so delicious that I’ll have to try it!
I received this book the day after I ordered it. So much in there I want to make. Will be making this dish on Saturday. Glad you brought it to our attention!
love Lidia
Terry, we had this for dinner tonight. It was SO delicious! My husband looked disappointed when it was cooking thinking he would not like it but he loved it. I made the proportions from the book which said serves 6 but for us it was smallish portions for 4. I guess that’s because an Italian meal has many courses? We did have a salad to go with it. So good! We will have this again soon.
Fantastic for dinner tonight. Many thanks! I had some slow-roasted tomatoes that needed to be dispatched, so chopped them up and tossed in at the end. It was, as you say, transcendent. Any idea why?
TRNL, my guess is that many Italian grandmothers over many, many years had a hand in making it the delicious meal it is. It has become a go-to weeknight meal for us.
Whatever works, I say! A culinary friend suggests:
As to the rich taste of this pasta dish … hhmmm … my guess is that you have four separate sources of umami: sausage, sauteed onions, tomato paste and parmesan. Collectively they create an harmonious savoury blend reminiscent of a richly savoury stock.