Today I will be sharing one of my favourite non-vegetarian pasta sauce dishes. I eat very little meat (and fish) for environmental and ethical reasons, usually once a week, and a bit more so in winter.

My local butcher Matt from the Butcher’s Block in Clifton Hill makes the best sausages at the back of his shop. I love the pork and fennel sausages he makes as well as the Mediterranean lamb. I love to break the sausages into chunks and turn them into a pasta sauce. Apart from the sausages, this is a pantry ingredient dish with peas and tomatoes. It is nothing fancy but thoroughly delicious, especially when you add chilli flakes and a hint of powdered cinnamon.

Frozen peas are the only frozen vegetable I use; they are so convenient and the baby ones are really very good. I always have a bag or two in the freezer. They are great with ricotta (replace the usual spinach with peas to make a filling for a savoury pie); in a braise with some ham or pancetta (this was one of my mamma’s signature dishes); cooked with garlic, olive oil and a splash of white wine until they are soft and mushy (then eaten with potato mash); and with tinned tomatoes. I mean, how good are frozen baby peas?!

I made my own cavatelli for this dish, using semolina flour and water. Cavatelli are a traditional Sicilian pasta shape and they look very even because I have a hand cranked cavatelli rolling machine (the brand is Miss Peppa, made in Italy) that spits out cavatelli quickly and evenly. They can also easily be made by hand using a gnocchi board to make the ribbed contour which catches sauce, but the machine is a bit quicker.

Cavatelli with sausages, peas and cinnamon

Serves 4

400g dried or fresh cavatelli pasta
3 pork and fennel sausages
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
1 tin (440g) good quality peeled tomatoes (eg Mutti)
1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
good pinch of dried chilli flakes
2/3 cup frozen peas
grated parmesan cheese to serve  

fresh parsley or mint leaves, chopped, to serve  

Remove the casings from the sausages and break up the meat into chunks. Add a glug of olive oil to a medium-sized frypan on medium-high and add the sausage pieces. Cook for about 8 minutes until the meat has cooked through, stirring every minute or so, then add the wine.

Let that cook off for a couple of minutes, then sprinkle on the cinnamon, the chilli flakes and the tin of tomatoes. Turn the heat down to medium low and allow to simmer before adding the peas. Stir them through then cook for another ten or so minutes. If the sauce starts to look a bit thick, dilute it with a bit of pasta cooking water (see below). 

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook until just before it is done to your liking. Set aside half a cup of cooking water before draining the pasta in a colander. Add the drained pasta to the frypan with the sauce, and allow it to cook on medium heat for another minute, stirring the contents of the pan so that the sauce covers the pasta, and adding a bit of the cooking water that you have set aside if needed. Taste and adjust the salt if needed.  

Serve sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese and some fresh parsley or mint leaves.