Fusilli with a Delicious Ragu of Chicken, Sausage, Asparagus, and Mushrooms

 

A while ago we came across this delicious looking recipe for a dish called Chicken, Sausage, Asparagus, and Mushroom Pasta, from fellow food blogger Lynne of Cook & Be Merry. We found her blog's name to be wonderful, and this dish seemed to have a wonderful combination of everything we'd like, so we decided to give it a go.

Handsome.

What comes out is essentially a ragu. A creamy ragu, filled with chicken, sausage, and a variety of veggies. It has a ton of ingredients and requires quite a bit of chopping, but the reward is well worth the effort. So get out your cutting board and get ready for a wonderful dish!

Making the Dish

Quartered cremini mushrooms

What You'll Need

1/2 lb long fusilli
1/2 lb chicken breast
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion diced
3 cloves garlic diced
1 bunch basil sliced
2 cups cremini mushrooms
1 bunch asparagus
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup Marsala wine
salt and pepper to taste

All the ingredients chopped and ready to go

As mentioned, this dish has a lot of ingredients that require some chopping, so it's easiest to just get that out of the way from the get go. You'll need to get out your asparagus, cherry tomatoes, cremini mushrooms, garlic, onion, and basil out, rinsed, and ready to go. Trim off the ends of the asparagus and then slice them into 1 inch pieces. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and quarter the mushrooms. Thinly slice the garlic, chop the basil, and dice the onion.

Once this is done, you can move onto your meat. You'll want to cut the chicken into cubes, 3/4 inch or so large, and remove the sausage from the casing. We used sweet Italian sausage for this, but you can replace this with really any kind of sausage you'd like.

Now that everything is chopped up, it's time to get cooking. In a large saucepan (and you'll need a large one, since there's so much stuff in here!) heat up some olive oil over medium heat. Once it's hot, drop in your chicken and sausage and sear, seasoning with ground pepper and a touch of salt. Once mostly cooked through, remove from heat and let drain on paper towels.

Using the same pan (taking out some of the fat from the sausage if there is too much) over medium heat, throw in the garlic and the onions and sauté gently, until the onion has started to soften and the garlic has started to turn slightly golden, but not burned.

After a few minutes of cooking with the Marsala 
added in, a deep rich sauce starts to emerge

Add in the asparagus, tomato, and mushroom and stir around gently, cooking briefly until the asparagus starts to become tender and the mushrooms soften. Deglaze the pan by adding in the Marsala wine. Add the chicken and sausage back to the pan, stir, and simmer gently on low heat while your pasta cooks.

Adding the mascarpone, basil, and parmesan to the ragu

We used this wonderful fusilli which is the long version - not the short corkscrew version. It's like spaghetti that has been coiled up, and it's great. It's actually one of Bryan's favorite pastas, but it's somewhat difficult to find. If you can't find this long fusilli, any long noodle thick noodle will do (this sauce is probably too much for capellini, vermicelli, or thin spaghetti, but would work on fettuccine or linguine), or any nice thick short noodle like ziti or rigatoni. But if you can find the long fusilli, buy it, and enjoy it.




When the pasta is nearly done cooking, add the grated parmesan, mascarpone cheese, and basil to the ragu and stir to incorporate.

Serve the ragu over the pasta and enjoy!

The Wine
We enjoyed this dish with a nice Syrah from a producer called Turchi. This is another one we found through Lot 18, and it's a great take on the syrah varietal. It's got a big, spicy up front flavor, with a great finish. If you see this in your local wine and liquor store, pick it up!

The Result
All together, the flavors that go into creating this ragu work together wonderfully. The marsala and mushrooms obviously play together beautifully, but are enhanced by the mascarpone and sweetness from the basil. And of course the chicken and sausage make this nice and filling and hearty. Truthfully if you're looking for something lighter, you can easily remove the chicken and sausage and just enjoy the ragu that comes together from the vegetables.

Enjoy!