Linguine with Sweet Sausage, White Truffle Butter, Sage & Parmesan

If you’re anything like I am, you do not have truffles at the ready. But I’m here to tell you, there is no need to fret. We’re getting our fancy on with white truffle butter, today.

This is a dish that feels like a memory but then surprises you with unexpected earthy flavors like white truffle and sage.

I’ve had a romance with pasta for as long back as I can remember. We typically ate it on Sundays and then a second day during the week. There was nothing like waking up to the aroma of onion and garlic frying in a little bit of oil on Sunday morning. We knew sauce was coming, and if we smelled it once, we smelled it 1000 times and each time was as pleasing and satisfying as the time before. Mom usually served spaghetti or rigatoni with her homemade tomato sauce, sausage and meatballs (when we were lucky), but I don’t recall a lot of pasta with anything other than her red sauce. Every once in a while we’d have garlic spaghetti topped with broccoli or cauliflower, and that was always a treat.

So this is not a dish we would have had growing up. And truffles were not a food we ate, let alone knew existed (I’m speaking for myself, of course.).  So when D’Artagnan sent me another goodie package containing all sorts of special ingredients, I was pleased to see their truffle butters, not only white, but black, had made it into the box.

Oh these truffle butters…so good swirled into pasta, tucked into a burger, dolloped on a steak…

It didn’t take me long to figure out that I wanted a pasta dish and it needed to include fried sage.

White truffle butter and fried sage are a match made in heaven. I will caution you though – be careful as you fry the tender leaves, they like to pop and splatter, letting the world know they’re here. We see you little sage leaves…no need to cause a ruckus.

My initial plan was to add just the fried sage truffle butter to my perfectly cooked linguine, then I thought…

sausage…sweet sausage…

And Linguine with Sweet Sausage, White Truffle Butter, Sage & Parmesan was born.

This dish has a soul. The flavors are rich and deep and robust. When you place a forkful in your mouth you’re surprised by the layering of flavors going on. It’s like looking into the eyes of a person and knowing that what you see is nowhere near everything you get. There is depth to this dish that you might not imagine from a first glance.

As I was testing to get just the right amount of cheese I was thinking to myself that so many of the dishes I share really are designed to leave the ball in the cook’s court. Italian cooking has a lot of  ‘a little bit of this and a little bit of that’.

So often I want to use words like: a couple glugs, a healthy sprinkling, a few swirls, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be doing my job for you…

So yes, testing for the cheese – cheese, by the way, that was not prepared with wood…have you heard about that?

So yes, the cheese (I’ll get there…) – I tasted and tasted and before I knew it, I had taste-tested enough to count as dinner. Dom got home and I wasn’t particularly hungry anymore…I need to get better at that.

This dish is very simple. Begin by frying your sausage and setting it aside. Boil your pasta and in the meantime, melt your butter which you’ll fry your sage leaves in. Combine everything in a large bowl, top with a lot of Parm, deliver a nice grind of black pepper, then call it a meal.

A delicious, warm, hearty, rustic, soulful, savory and fragrant meal.

Who doesn’t want that?

Buon Appetito!

Linguine with Sweet Sausage, White Truffle Butter, Sage & Parmesan

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews

• Author: Ciao Chow Bambina
• Category: Dinner

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

---

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage (remove casing)
• 1 pound linguine
• 8 Tbsp. (4 oz.) White Truffle Butter
• 25 – 30 fresh sage leaves
• 1 – 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

---

Instructions

1. In a skillet, over medium heat, fry the loose sausage until fully cooked and browned, about 10 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta according to package directions.
4. In the meantime, melt the truffle butter over medium heat with the sage leaves.
5. Cook until the sage begins to sizzle, about 3 minutes.
6. When the pasta is finished, reserve 1 cup of pasta water then drain the linguine in a colander.
7. Toss the cooked pasta with the sausage, sage, truffle butter and 1 cup Parmesan. (Add pasta water to create a saucier dish, if you’d like.).
8. Add salt, freshly ground black pepper and a sprinkling more of Parmesan.
9. Serve warm.

---

Ciao!