Sam's Sausage Meatball Sauce
Switzerland has excellent sausages.
Whether it’s gorgeous saucisson from French-speaking cantons or the ubiquitous cervelat, there’s truly a sausage for every taste.
My husband Sam is a sausage fan. In 2019 he and our friend Richard trekked up to a sausage making course in Schangnau at Metzgerei Bieri They came home with armfuls of vacuum packed Wurst that were stuffed into our freezer and enjoyed in the following months. The sausages that were not simply grilled and eaten, were sometimes turned into Sam’s famous sausage meatball sauce.
Simple to make, all you need to do is remove the sausage casing, form balls from the innards, then simmer said balls in tomato sauce. Add some pasta at the end (which my intrepid Sam even has the patience to make from scratch) and you’ve got dinner.
We like using Luganighe, a sausage from Ticino, or Bauernbratwurst (not to be confused with the white ones), but any variety of this style of raw sausage should work.
4 Luganighe (or about 500 g similar sausage)
olive oil
2 large onions, minced
fennel seeds and chili flakes
4-5 cloves garlic
2 cans tomatoes
Italian herbs, salt and pepper to season
500 g pasta
Remove casing from sausage and form meatballs (about 5 cm/ 2 inch diameter).
In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the oil and then brown the sausage meatballs in batches. Remove and set aside.
Add the onions, fennel seeds and chili flakes (you can add these to taste, but we usually add about a tbsp of fennel seeds and ½ tsp chili flakes), and fry until the onion is transluscent and the fennel is fragrant.
Add the garlic and fry for a minute or so, being careful it doesn’t burn.
Add the tomatoes, season with herbs and salt and pepper, then bring to a simmer. Stir the meatballs back in, and let simmer as you prepare the pasta.
Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, then add it directly to the sauce in the pot.
Stir and serve.
You can use most varieties of similar raw sausage, Luganighe, Bauernbratwurst (raw Bratwurst, not to be confused with the white ones) etc. In Canada I would have used what was simply called Italian sausage (and I would have bought it from Spolumbo’s).
Another family favourite?
Sam’s Ragu
