Pasta alla Norcina

Pasta Alla Norcina has creamy pasta with sausage and mushrooms in a super flavorful white wine cream sauce.

📝 Ingredients

• 12 ounces dry pasta (we used shells but you could use any firm shape such as Penne, Rigatoni, Fusili, etc.)
• 12 ounces Cremini mushrooms, sliced (also known as Baby Bella)
• 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, ground (we placed ours in a mortar and pestle along with the salt and ground to a fine powder)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, as mentioned above
• 1 pound Italian sausage, remove from casings
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups yellow onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese, plus more for serving

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1Start a large pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add a little salt and the pasta and cook just shy of done. (still a little chewy). Do not discard pasta water yet.
2. 2While pasta is cooking, in a large skillet without heat, add sliced mushrooms and turn the heat to medium high heat and cook until browned, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Once browned, add butter, salt and ground rosemary. Stir and scrape contents into a bowl.
3. 3Place the sausage meat into the skillet and over medium high heat, brown the sausage meat, about 5-8 minutes.
4. 4Move the meat to the edges and add the olive oil, onions and garlic and cook to soften the onions, for about 3 minutes.
5. 5Stir in the white pepper and nutmeg, then add the mushrooms back in along with the white wine. Cook to evaporate most of the wine, for about 5 minutes.
6. 6Add the heavy cream and grated Romano cheese and heat just to bubbling then remove from heat.
7. 7By now, the pasta should be ready. Save a few cups of the pasta water and drain the rest.
8. 8Place the drained pasta back into the pot and pour over the sauce.
9. 9Place heat on medium and finish cooking the pasta in the sauce, adding pasta water if needed as you go until the pasta is fully cooked.
10. 10Serve with additional Romano cheese over each portion.