One of the first things I asked the locals was whether that colorful pasta, which almost everyone brings you as a little souvenir from a trip to Italy, and which usually ends up in the trash bin, expired, because it was too cute to eat, was ever used in Italian homes, or if it was just an invention for tourists. It must be said, always in worse taste than the aprons or underwear adorned with a photograph of the most intimate parts of some famous Renaissance statue. (If you don’t know what pasta I’m talking about, I’ll leave you this video to illustrate the topic, which also gives me the same anguish and existential crisis as the product itself). Just as I feared, although in Italy the range of pasta types is much more extensive than in our supermarkets, the absurd colorful ones are only found in shops for tourists. Fusilli lunghi belong, in my non-native opinion, but one sufficiently familiar with local customs, to fun pasta, but used in Italian kitchens. I remember seeing it in some supermarkets in Barcelona. If you were to find it from the Neapolitan brand Garofalo, that would be something to celebrate.
I love it and it is the favorite of every Italian I know. In any case, it turns out just as well with regular fusilli. I haven’t found my variation of the recipe with lemon. Usually, if I come up with something, I search the internet to see if someone else has thought of it first. If that’s not the case, it helps me feel super clever and/or meditate on whether it might be an aberrant culinary mix. That hasn’t been the case, although, who knows, I don’t have all the time in the world to read everything that comes up on Google. It occurred to me the same way one thinks about Vichy water, just by seeing some pig’s trotters that one is about to tuck into. The lemon gives a fresh and acidic touch in contrast to the caramelized fat of the sausage, which makes you perceive it as a bit lighter. To finish and be able to sleep well tonight, I admit that, before my voluntary exile to Italy, I was also one of those who liked to be gifted impossible colorful pasta, as if it came out of Willy Wonka’s factory. And yes, it also ended up in the trash, to prevent a plague of weevils, which were screaming to escape the plastic, from invading the other ordinary pasta packages in the cupboard.
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The card
- 250 g fusilli lunghi
- 2 medium sausages (150 g more or less)
- 500 g fresh spinach
- 1 chili pepper
- 1 garlic clove
- Grated Pecorino or Parmigiano
- 50 ml dry white wine
- A teaspoon of lemon zest
- A teaspoon of lemon juice
- Black pepper
- Salt
- Olive oil.
- Slowly sauté the garlic clove and the chili pepper in a medium pan with a good splash of olive oil.
- Remove the garlic and chili from the pan, turn up the heat slightly and add the spinach. Season with salt and sauté the spinach for ⅘ minutes until it has reduced in volume, but without letting it turn into black mush.
- Heat a splash of olive oil in another pan, large enough to comfortably mix the sausage meat, pasta, and spinach in it. Brown the sausage meat, which we will have previously removed from the casing and crumbled.
- When the sausage is browned, drizzle it with the wine and let it cook until the wine reduces and the meat acquires a candied shine, about ⅘ minutes.
- Grate a teaspoon of lemon zest. Squeeze another teaspoon of lemon juice and add them to the sausage. Stir, let reduce for a couple of minutes and turn off the heat.
- Bring plenty of water to a boil with a little salt (do not add the salt until the water boils). Drain the pasta when it is almost al dente. Mix it with the sausage and half a ladle of pasta cooking water for a couple of minutes over medium heat.
- Turn off the heat, add the spinach, pepper to taste, and finish mixing everything.
- Serve the dish by sprinkling the pasta with Pecorino or Parmigiano to taste.
- Note 1: To go faster and avoid having to reheat the sausage and spinach when the pasta is almost al dente, start heating the water for the pasta at the same time you start cooking the sausage and spinach. Everything depends on the burners you have or your "multitasking" ability.
- Note 2: Don't overdo it with the lemon!
