Pasta alla norcina is a typical recipe from Umbria; specifically the ancient town of Norcia, famous for its sausages and cured meats. There are actually two versions of pasta alla norcina. This one is made with Norcia sausage crumbled into a pan with oil and onion, fresh cream, truffle and pecorino. This is a very simple recipe with few ingredients but so flavourful and creamy you’ll want to make it part of your regular pasta menu.
A popular creamy sausage pasta recipe from Umbria
The other version of pasta alla norcina is usually made with long pasta like spaghetti or tagliatelle, which is dressed with only black truffles, garlic and anchovies, to which you can also add foraged mushrooms. I’m looking forward to giving that version a try soon. But for now let’s talk about this one!
Norcia; a little town with a big culinary reputation!
Umbria is well-known for its pork, hams, sausages, and other cured meats. The best of these come from Norcia. This town has become so famous for its method of pork butchery and preparation of cured meats, that butchers across Italy now use the term ‘norcino’ to refer to all kinds of meat preserved in the ‘Norcia’ way and the name ‘norcineria’ is used for butchers that specialize in preparing, curing and selling pork products.
Norcia is also famous for black truffles. In fact, the truffles found around Norcia are highly prized and considered a gastronomic gem. Every year at the end of February or beginning of March, there is an important Italian Black Truffle fair in the town. Visitors to the fair can taste all the gastronomic specialties of Umbria cuisine, and especially those with truffle, of course. These specialties include cured meat and cheese seasoned with truffles, as well as pasta dishes like this pasta alla norcina.
The Pasta for alla Norcina.
This recipe is usually prepared with short pasta such as penne or rigatoni. I used Italian maccheroni made by La Molisana but you can also use any short pasta of your choice.
Can you use other types of sausage?
Finding Norcia sausages isn’t easy outside of Italy. So, of course, you can use any good quality Italian pork sausage. The dish will still taste fabulous. I would try to find Italian sausage without fennel but with garlic if possible, or rosemary.
Can you use truffle oil?
To be honest, rather than use truffle oil, I’d probably leave the truffle out. Although, you could try just a tiny amount of truffle oil or perhaps some truffle paste. However, even in Umbria, this dish is often served without truffle when they’re not available or out of season. I used frozen truffles as I’m lucky enough to source truffles from the area I live in and often freeze them for later use!
What are the other ingredients in pasta alla Norcina?
Apart from the sausage and truffles (if using them), this pasta alla Norcina recipe has very few ingredients. All you need is some fresh cream, grated pecorino, white wine and onion. The sauce doesn’t take long, so you can prepare it while boiling the water for, and cooking, the pasta. All in all not much work for a totally yummy plate of pasta that I’m sure will become a firm favourite before you’ve even finished the bowl!
If you make this recipe I’d love to hear how it turns out and if you liked it. Please leave a comment here on the blog or on The Pasta Project Facebook page. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Buon appetito!
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Pasta alla Norcina; sausage pasta recipe
Ingredients
- 400g penne (14oz) or other short pasta
- 2-3 Italian pork sausages
- 1 onion white or yellow
- 1-2 black truffles I used 2 small ones (optional)
- 200 ml fresh cream (6-7floz)
- 1/2 glass white wine
- 50 g pecorino cheese (2oz) grated
- 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- salt for pasta and to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Remove the casing from the sausages and crumble the meat filling. Peel and chop the onion finely.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta, add salt and bring to the boil again.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan or skillet over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it starts to soften then add the crumbled sausage meat.
- Brown the sausage, while stirring with a wooden spatula to prevent it from sticking. Pour in the wine. Allow the alcohol to evaporate while stirring. Lower the heat, cover, and finish cooking the sausage in its own juices for 10 minutes
- Uncover, taste and season with salt and pepper as required. Pour in the cream and bring the sauce to a gentle simmer. Add a few truffle shavings (if using) and half the pecorino. Reduce the sauce for 3–4 minutes, then turn off the heat, cover and set aside.
- Cook the pasta in the salted boiling water until al dente according to the instructions on the packet. Save some of the pasta cooking water and drain the pasta. Add it to the pan with the sausage and cream sauce.
- Over a low heat, mix the pasta and sauce together– you can add a little pasta cooking water if it seems too thick
- Serve immediately with a generous sprinkling of grated pecorino, some freshly ground black pepper and truffle shavings .
Notes
If you like pasta with sausage you will love these other recipes..
- Tagliolini pasta alla Langarola with sausage, chicken liver and porcini ragu
- Bigoli pasta with Luganega sausage
- Sardinian Gnocchi –Malloreddus with sausage, tomatoes and saffron alla Campidanese
- Gramigna with sausage from Bologna
- Sausage and saffron pasta alla monzese from Lombardy
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If you are interested in learning how to make homemade pasta and different types of gnocchi, check out my shop page for some great video online courses from my friends in Rome! Nothing beats learning to make pasta from Italians! Plus while you’re there why not order a copy of one of my pasta recipe cookbooks or checkout some recommended pasta making tools?
CindyL says
Oh my goodness! This has my name written all over it so thank you so much for sharing! This is what we’re going to have for the Feast of St. Francis this year, which brings me to my question. Do you have any recommendations on some vegetable sides for this? Would an olive oil and a balsamic reduction drizzled over radicchio as it’s roasting be a good pairing, or is that not Umbrian? That would figure. Anyway, any suggestions you have would be wonderful! Thank you!
Jacqui says
Hi Cindy, I’m sure you’ll love this recipe. It’s so good. In Italy, pasta isn’t really eaten with a side dish as it’s often a starter. However, in Umbria they make a lot of side dishes with small lentils as the region is famous for its mountain lentils. They also have a well known side dish called bandiera made with lightly sautéed green bell peppers, onions and tomatoes. Green beans are also a traditional side dish cooked in different ways. Do let me know how your pasta alla Norcina turns out.
Brighid says
Doubled the recipe and it was fantastic. Didn’t have truffles but I used truffle salt in the pasta water as well as the sauce and thought it tasted delicious. Also added garlic as suggested. I’m a huge garlic fan so wouldn’t mind a bit more next time. Otherwise, perfect as is!
Deborah says
This recipe looks so delicious. I love Italian sausage, but have never used it in a cream sauce for pasta. Living here in the US I will try a little truffle paste (and I really like the comment above from someone who make truffle butter and freezes it. What a great idea!)
Mario Rossi says
yes fresh ground pork, minced garlic, fresh minced rosemary and nutmeg to taste
Celeste Gobeille says
I fell in love with this dish in Assisi years ago. If I want to avoid the fennel, can I just use ground pork and add…..what? Thanks.
Jacqui says
Hi Celeste thanks for your comment. I’m not sure about what you mean by avoiding fennel. There’s no fennel in this recipe. I just mentioned it’s better not to use sausages made with fennel in them. Plain Italian or other pork sausages or those made with garlic or rosemary are better. Sausages have a different flavour to ground pork but, of course, you can use it. I would add a little rosemary if you want to include a herb.
Brighid says
Near where I live it’s hard to find a place that sells sausage without fennel. I think Celeste was saying if she just buys plain ground pork how would she adjust the flavors to match italian sausage, thus avoiding using the ones with fennel. Or are the two nothing alike?
Jacqui says
Hi Brighid, thanks for your comment. Traditional sausages from Norcia don’t have fennel, in fact they have very few spices just salt, pepper, garlic and sometimes wine. So I guess you could use ground pork. Italian sausage in US has fennel and other spices but here in Italy we have many types of ‘Italian’ sausage. If you can find plain pork sausages (not Italian) you could also try those instead.
Marilyn says
Delicious! I always keep truffle butter in my freezer. With so little entertaining this sad year, I skipped purchasing “extravagant extras” like truffles and the butter version is a good substitute. I heated it with the cream in a small saucepan and then added it to the sausage. I think it worked just fine. Thank you for the recipe.
Richard H. says
I made this recipe for my wife. We used truffle carpaccio (in oil) since we didn’t have dry truffle. I also used rigatoni. I also added a little garlic and basil, which is probably frowned upon, but it was so good.
This was such a delicious and simple dish. It was so flavorful. If we bought it in a restaurant this would easily be $25-$30 a dish. I think it cost us $6-7 total. We are thrilled to have a new pasta recipe in our arsenal.. Thank you so much!
Emily Laguna says
This was delicious! I hope I did not break some sacred rule, but I used red wine rather than white because it’s what I had on hand. I did not add truffles. I topped it with chopped parsley. Had 3 servings…
Kai Ewe says
Thx for the recipe. Instead of fresh truffle, can I use black truffle sauce in a bottle?
Jacqui says
Hi Kai, yes I think you can add a little truffle oil or sauce. But not too much as the flavour will be strong! You can also make this recipe without truffle too! Enjoy!
Kai Ewe says
Thanks!! I’m also thinking adding porcini mushroom and ricotta cheese, when should I add them?
Jacqui says
Hi Kai, if you are using dried porcini, don’t forget to soak them for at least 30 minutes before adding them. I would add the mushrooms after adding the sausage. The ricotta can be added with the cream!
Stan says
My family and I just got back from a 10 day tour of Italy; Venice, Pisa, Florence, Rome, and Pompei. My wife had a tracked this recipe down as it was a dish she had in Florence so I made it for her. I followed the recipe to the gram and it came out perfecto! Literally one of the tastiest things I’ve ever made. Now to track down the ragu we had in a farmhouse in Tuscany!
Stan says
Forgot to mention, her dish had rosemary in it and I do believe it’s in your picture of the dish but not the ingredients. She just so happened to be growing some so I used the leaves of a 2inch sprig. Added it in with the cream. Bene!
KG says
Loved this! Thx!