Day 4- Fettucine with Sausage, Sage and Crispy Garlic

(the camera lens was fogged up- eek)

Those of you following the challenge may be startled by the last-minute recipe change. Day four was supposed to be T'fina Pkaila and don't worry, it's not out. Do to circumstances outside of my control (ok, that's a lie) I was not able to get any spinach today. Spinach is readily available in Rabat, I just somehow picked the three places where it wasn't and then was too lazy to keep looking.

So instead, I did tomorrow's meal today. It's another one from Epicurious and this one came HIGHLY recommend by my colleague and friend Sarah who is doing her own challenge. This Fettuccine with Sausage, Sage and Crispy Garlic looks delicious. 


I was anxious to get started so I did all of the prep first and that was really the longest part of the whole recipe. Removing the casings from the sausage was gross. Especially because the turkey sausage that I got was spiced. Lots of weird things in the mix- the imagination goes a bit wild. Then of course thinly slicing garlic is always a treat!

fairly simple ingredients once again!

The first step was frying the garlic to a light crisp. I made my first mistake (oops) of the recipe here. I misread and fried them in just a tablespoon of butter. It seemed to take an oddly long time to get them lightly browned. It was until a few steps later that I wondered what I was supposed to do with the oil called for by the recipe. Turns out I was supposed to fry the garlic in a tablespoon of butter AND a half cup of oil.

crispy garlic slices- would have been crispier with oil!

After removing the garlic, you add the chopped sage and then finally the sausage. Since my sausage was spiced, it was a little bit difficult to tell when it was "browned." It never browned, it just stayed red!

is it brown yet?

After the sausage mixture is ready, it's time to mix with the fettuccine! I didn't find any fettuccine, so I went with tagliatelle instead. I think the fettuccine would have been better- the tagliatelle is a bit too thin. Top with crunchy garlic and cheese and your done! The recipe calls for Asiago, I used parmesan. 

The verdict- It gets better as you eat! When I first tried it, I wasn't very impressed. As some reviewers said, the noodles are a bit dry and I really couldn't taste the sage very much. After we started eating though, I found that I couldn't stop! The parmesan really makes the dish. Mohamed thought it was great as well and couldn't stop picking at the bowl even after we finished.  I think I will make this again, but next time with more sage and maybe some pasta water to make it more saucy.

Tomorrow will DEFINITELY be T'fina Pkaila (Beef rib and Meatball stew) from Saveur.