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Cook time
40 minutes
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Serves
4 to 6
Author Notes
There's nothing like fennel seed to make Italian sausages taste even more of themselves (probably because it's one of the main flavorings). If you've ever bitten into a fennel seed, then you know what I mean. It's fragrant and herbaceous, tasting lightly of licorice and, well, of sausage. Roasting the sausages like this, chopped up into small bite-size pieces, also means they crisp up and curl into themselves as they bake, essentially turning into little meatballs—zero rolling involved.
The sheet-pan method saves the day again because all of the ingredients will sweeten and caramelize in the oven (while you go about your night, e.g. feeding the dog, taking a bath, pouring yourself a glass of wine). More importantly, the fat from the sausages will flavor the entire contents of the pan. This fennel-scented fat will be especially useful when tossed into a pound of cooked fusilli, because it both seasons and enriches the pasta like nothing else. —Eric Kim
Test Kitchen Notes
Featured in: A Quick & Cozy Sheet-Pan Pasta for Lazy Winter Weeknights. —The Editors
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Ingredients
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1 pound
sweet and/or spicy Italian sausages (casings still on), cut into bite-size pieces
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1
head cauliflower, separated into florets and cut into bite-size pieces
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1
red onion, thickly sliced
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1 tablespoon
fennel seed
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1/4 cup
olive oil
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Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
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1 pound
fusilli (spiral-shaped pasta)
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1 cup
grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to taste
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1 cup
fresh Italian parsley leaves (left whole), for garnish, but also as an ingredient in its own right
Directions
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Preheat oven to 400°F.
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Place sausage, cauliflower, red onion, fennel seed, olive oil, salt, and pepper on a half-sheet pan (18x13 inches), toss to combine, and roast for 40 minutes.
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Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and season generously with salt. Cook fusilli to desired doneness, drain, and return to the pot.
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Add everything from the sheet pan to the pot with the cooked fusilli, along with the Parmesan and parsley, and toss together.
Eric Kim was the Table for One columnist at Food52. He is currently working on his first cookbook, KOREAN AMERICAN, to be published by Clarkson Potter in 2022. His favorite writers are William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway, but his hero is Nigella Lawson. You can find his bylines at The New York Times, where he works now as a writer. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @ericjoonho.
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