We really like to cook in bianco, especially those meats, that require a little longer cooking. These dishes very often also makes really tasty sauces for pasta dishes. One of our favorites is a sugo where we cook the fresh salsiccia in bianco - making it even more "white" by adding milk during cooking - this gives a great creamy texture to the sauce without being greasy.
These types of sauces are really great with thick eggy noodles like tagliatelle or pappardelle - but any sturdy pasta will do just great.
To add a bit of freshness to the dish, we often add a prepared vegetable just at the end of the cooking, like small artichokes, broad beans or fresh peas.
Serves 4-6
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
4 bay leaves, fresh if possible
6 fresh sausages - salsiccia, skin removed and meat crumbled
250 ml white wine
250 ml full fat milk
lemon juice
sea salt and black pepper
prepared vegetable, if using
small handful of parsley, chopped
Heat olive oil in a medium pan and saute onion and garlic at low temperature for 10 minutes without taking any colour.
Increase the heat and add the sausage meat and the bay leaves. Saute for a few minutes until the meat starts to cook and crumble.
Pour in the wine and let it cook for a minute, just to get rid of the alcohol, then pour in the milk. Lower the temperature, cover with a lid and let it gently simmer for 40 minutes.
During cooking the milk will split, but at the end of the cooking the solids of the milk will come together to make a creamy sauce.
If the sauce is still quite liquid after 40 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to cook and reduce until a creamy consistency. Adjust seasoning with a bit of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
When you are ready to serve, cook your choosen pasta, add your vegetable, if using, to the warm sauce to heat through, then add drained pasta and parsley and give it a good shake, so the pasta is coated in the sauce. If the sauce looks a bit dry, add a little of the cooking water.