This simple, rustic rigatoni dish is earthy and savory. It's a fine well-balanced Italian dinner. You will especially love the sausage-like freshness of fennel and pork paired with the spicy, sweetness of summer peppers and tomatoes.
8ozmild pepperssuch as fresno or baby bell peppers
2clovesgarlicminced
1ozparmesanfreshly grated
2ozPecorino Romanofreshly grated
1lemonzest and juice
Instructions
Fill a large pot 3/4 full with water and add 3 large pinches of kosher salt. Bring to a boil and add rigatoni. Stir to prevent sticking, then cook until tender all the way through. Strain.
Begin building the sauce in a large pan over medium heat. Start by adding olive oil and cook the pork for a few minutes. Stir every so often to break up the size of the ground pork - browning is a good thing.
Season the pork as it cooks with a pinch of salt, fennel seeds, paprika, and cayenne. Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add coconut sugar and 1 tsp salt and heat another minute.
Slice the peppers and discard the stems (keep the seeds though). Layer the cherry tomtoes and peppers into the pan and stir. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the tomatoes and peppers are VERY tender and juicy.
Add minced garlic and shave the Parmesan over the pan using a microplane or the small holes of a cheese grater. Then add the rigatoni and cover to steam the noodles a bit (2 minutes).
Shave lemon zest and Pecorino Romano over the pasta in layers of 3. For example, shave a bit and cook 1 minute. Then stir. Shave some more, cook 1 minute. Then stir. Serve right away.
Video
Notes
Peppers:Use any mild variety of peppers, such as fresno or baby bell peppers. Do not discard the seeds.Tomatoes:Use cherry tomatoes for their sweet flavor or grape tomatoes.Cayenne:If your cayenne powder is dull red (not bright red), then throw it out and buy fresh. Cayenne goes bad quickly and imparts a bitter taste to food when it's old.Pecorino Romano:This cheese is funkier than Parmesan cheese and has an intense flavor. Taste a small piece to make sure you like it. If you don't, you can just use Parmesan in this recipe.