Gurdeep Loyal’s fennel sausage, gochujang and vodka paccheri recipe

“One of the leitmotifs of my cooking is fennel seeds – a signature ingredient used in both Punjabi and Italian cuisines – in almost everything. I adore the punchy lemony-anise hit they bring to any dish, sweet and savoury,” says chef and food writer Gurdeep Loyal.

“For this reason my usually sparse refrigerator is rarely without Italian fennel sausages – grilled whole to a blackened char for the ultimate sarnies, or split open to sizzle in a pan for dreamy fennel sausage ragus.

“The spicy-savouriness of gochujang is the perfect note to add to this aniseedy chord, amped up further by the taste-magnifying effects of vodka. With flavours this loud, only very gigantic pasta – like satisfyingly huge paccheri – will do. The bigger the better!”

Fennel sausage, gochujang and vodka paccheri

Ingredients

(Serves 2-3)

2tbsp olive oil

1 large red onion, finely chopped

2tsp fennel seeds, crushed

350g fennel sausages, cases removed

2tbsp gochujang

200g Tenderstem broccoli, ends trimmed

2tbsp tomato purée (paste)

4tbsp vodka

3tbsp balsamic vinegar

1tbsp caster (superfine) sugar

200g baby plum tomatoes, halved

125g soured cream

200g paccheri or rigatoni

Fine sea salt

For the pangrattato topping:

35g butter

2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste

2tsp herbes de Provence

50g panko breadcrumbs

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, then gently fry the onion with a pinch of salt over a medium heat for 4 minutes. Next add the fennel seeds and sausage meat, and cook for 5 minutes until the meat starts to take on a little colour. Stir in the gochujang and cook for another minute.

2. Next, add the broccoli and 1¼ teaspoons of salt, cooking for 4 minutes until tender. Now stir in the tomato purée, vodka, balsamic vinegar and sugar, combining well.

3. Add the plum tomatoes, cover with a lid and cook over a medium heat for 5–6 minutes until they start to collapse into the sauce. Finally, stir through the soured cream, and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for 30 minutes to let the flavours develop.

4. Meanwhile, make a crunchy pangrattato topping. Melt the butter in a frying pan, then add the garlic and dried herbs and fry for 1 minute. Add the breadcrumbs and Parmesan, and cook over a medium–high heat for 5 minutes until toasty and golden. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool completely and crisp up further.

5. Cook the pasta in a large pan of well-salted boiling water following the packet instructions. Drain, reserving a little of the pasta water.

Flavour Heroes: 15 Modern Pantry Ingredients to Amplify Your Cooking by Gurdeep Loyal is published in hardback by Quadrille, priced £27. Photography by Patricia Niven. Available now