Creamy Mustard Sausage and Pasta Hot Dish

I picked up some really nice looking fat and juicy bangers (otherwise known as sausages) at the local butchers the other day, and could hardly wait to cook them. You can tell a good butcher by his sausages you know! I was eager to see if our local butcher was up to scratch!

I just love a good sausage, which is strange, because . . . when I was a child I absolutely hated them! My mom always got the cheapest ones going, and once in while you might get a piece of gristle or bone in them. As soon as it touched my teeth, it made me want to gag. There was no way you could get me near a sausage with a ten foot pole!



As an adult I have come to appreciate a really good quality sausage . . . fat, moist and meaty, with not a lot of fillers, and a wonderfully, somewhat coarse texture. Skin so *quality* that it almost snaps when you bite into it, and a good mix of spice to flavour them, depending on the variety you buy. My personal favourites happen to be Cumberland, which are nicely flavoured and peppery.



Anyways, I picked up some sausages from our local butchers and decided to cook them for our tea tonight. I wanted to create something delicious with them . . . not the usual bangers and mash, but a fry up that would use up some of the things in my fridge that needed using up NOW! ie. some cream left in a cream jug, a small piece of cabbage and some pasta that was soon going out of date. I also had some mustards living in the bottom of a couple of jars that I wanted to get rid of. They were taking up a lot of space in the fridge that I needed for other things.



I think I came up with a real cracker here! I had to write it down so that I wouldn't forget it and so that I can make it again. It turned that good!

Imagine little meaty bites of a well flavoured sausage, in a creamy sauce filled with not one . . . but two tasty mustards, caramelized onions and cabbage, and a rustic homestyle pasta . . . perfectly shaped to hug and soak in all those lovely juices.



Oh my but this was good. I may have the leftovers for brekki in the morning, and who could blame me!

Oh, and just for the record??? This local butcher is a real gem! I'm keeping him!



*Creamy Mustard Sausage and Pasta Hot Dish*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

This is delicious. You get the caramelized sweetness from the onions and cabbage, along with the spicy tang of two mustards, and the richness of a good Butcher's sausage and cream. Fantastic!

a good glug of a well flavoured olive oil
4 medium onions, peeled and sliced
1/4 of a firm head of cabbage, trimmed and thinly sliced
6 good quality fat Butcher's sausages, skinned
a small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped coarsely
1 heaped TBS of Dijon mustard
1 heaped TBS  of grainy mustard
300ml of double cream (about 1 1/3 cups)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
half a pound of pasta shapes, such as conchiglie or cicatelli

Heat the oil in a large, heavy bottomed skillet. Add the onions and cabbage. Cook and stir, until they begin to wilt and become very sweet. You want them nice and soft and golden. If it helps, pop a lid on and let them steam/fry for a good ten minutes or so. When the vegetables have caramelized, add the sausage meat torn into chunks. Cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned all over and sticky as well. Stir in the mustards and cream, mixing in well. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Stir in the parsley, cover and take off the heat. Set aside, while the pasta cooks.

Cook the pasta according to the package directions in some lightly salted boiling water. Scoop the cooked pasta out of the water and right into the pan with the sausage mixture. Give it a good stir to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning once more as needed. Serve immediately. ( Don't worry if a bit of the pasta water gets into the pan, this adds to the sauce, just so long as it's not a lot. You don't want it to be too thin.) Scrummily moreish!