Spoiler Alert! You may already have a pasta dish similar to this in your recipe box! But on the chance that you do not, you should add this one to your culinary repertoire! Why? Because it is endlessly versatile and is something you can make when the kids are hungry, and you have less than an hour between music lessons and sports practice!
Leeks, chicken sausage, cream and parmesan cheese – four ingredients full of flavor on their own, but magical in combination. Don’t like chicken sausage? You can substitute with turkey or pork sausage, slices of boneless chicken breasts or even bacon which was in the recipe I took inspiration from for this dish. Are you a vegetarian? Swap out the sausage with a mix of wild mushrooms such as shitakes and creminis. Or go green with a combination of asparagus, zucchini and peas.
The possibilities are endless so I do hope you try it out sometime soon! Please let me know what you think and if you come up with some fun variations of your own!
Ingredients
- 12 ounces farfalle (or other short pasta)
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2 leeks, (white and light green parts only), halved lengthwise, thinly sliced and rinsed well)
- 3 mild Italian chicken sausages, casings removed
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup shaved parmesan
- Kosher salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add farfalle and cook according to the package directions, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water.
- While the pasta is cooking, warm the butter and oil in a medium sauté pan. Add the drained leeks and a sprinkling of kosher salt. Saute the leeks until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage to the pan and break up with a wooden spoon, sautéing until it is cooked through. Add the heavy cream to the pan and simmer until it begins to reduce and thicken, about 3 minutes.
- Add the cooked pasta to the pan with the sauce. Add the parmesan directly on top of the pasta and then toss the mixture together, seasoning with freshly ground black pepper. Add pasta water as needed to thin out the sauce and correct for seasoning.