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Clean recipe · cooking.nytimes.com

Pasta With Green Bean Ragù

This spoonable pasta, the result of smart home cooking, is a dance of sorts between two pots: Fresh green beans boil with the pasta in one pot to season the water with their gentle vegetal umami, while the quick sausage ragù simmers in another. That green-bean broth gets incorporated into the final dish, a rich, melting mix of Italian sausage, fennel seeds and crushed red pepper. A squeeze of lemon and a generous grating of Parmesan bring it all together.

Original recipe: cooking.nytimes.com

Yield:
4 servings
Prep:
10 min
Cook:
25 min
Total:
35 min
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Ingredients

  1. Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  2. 12 ounces green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
  3. 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  4. 1 yellow onion, diced
  5. 8 ounces hot or sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed
  6. 1 teaspoon fennel or cumin seeds
  7. ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
  8. 1 lemon, halved
  9. 1 pound short pasta, such as orecchiette, macaroni or wagon wheels
  10. 3 ounces grated Parmesan (about ¾ cup), plus more for serving

Instructions

  1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a simmer, as you cook the sauce. (Don’t worry about overcooking the beans; they can simmer for 10 to 30 minutes total.)
  2. While the beans simmer, heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium. Add the onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.
  3. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and stirring occasionally, until well browned and starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, about 7 minutes.
  4. Reduce the heat to low. Stir in the fennel seeds and red pepper and cook until fragrant, just a few seconds.
  5. Add the juice of ½ lemon and ½ cup of the cooking water from the green bean pot. Raise the heat if needed to simmer, stirring constantly, until the ragù is glossy, about 5 minutes. Add more water from the pot if necessary; the ragù should be saucy like gravy. Keep warm over very low heat.
  6. Add the pasta to the saucepan with the green beans and cook according to package instructions. Reserve 2 cups of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and green beans and transfer to the Dutch oven with the ragù. Add the Parmesan and 1 cup of the reserved cooking water, stirring vigorously, until the pasta is saucy and shiny and lightly coated with sauce. If needed, stir in more water, a little at a time. Taste and add more salt, pepper, lemon juice and cheese as desired.