Umbria: Pasta Norcina Style

Serves 4

400 gr Penne Rigate
500 gr Norcia sausage
250 ml Cooking Cream
White wine to taste
Black truffle to taste (or truffle sauce 80 gr)
Extra virgin olive oil, Salt, Pepper

Umbria: Pasta Norcina style. Remove the skin from the sausages and crumble them. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the crumbled sausages, cooking them evenly. Deglaze with white wine, add salt and pepper and cook for a few more minutes. Add the cooking cream and a sprinkling of truffle (or truffle sauce) and continue cooking for a few more minutes. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente, drain it and pour it directly into the pan, stirring well to mix all the ingredients. When cooked, serve hot. There is a variant on the original recipe, replacing the sausage and cream with anchovies and garlic. The name comes from the medieval meat workers, especially in the Norcia area (hence the name norcini, or salumieri). The use of Norcia sausage (which also contains garlic and pepper) is therefore very important, even though normal sausage can be used. In its variants, the pasta format can be varied to suit your taste. You can also replace penne rigate with rigatoni, spaghetti, pici (handmade spaghetti larger than normal spaghetti) and strangozzi (other long pasta with a rectangular section). As this is a dish with a pronounced flavour, we recommend pairing it with medium-bodied still white wines. Therefore Grechetto and Bianco Doc dei Colli Altotiberini are excellent.