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This is the archived version of the Milk Street website and is no longer up to date.

Please visit 177milkstreet.com to see the current website with all of the latest recipes!

Orecchiette with Sardinian Sausage Ragu

4 to 6 Servings

35 minutes

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Saffron gives this simple Sardinian ragu lots of character. The spice’s unique, vaguely floral, slightly minerally flavor pairs beautifully with the sausage, tomatoes and salty pecorino, but since saffron is a somewhat rarified ingredient, we’ve kept it optional. Even without, the dish is delicious. Our favorite pasta for this recipe is orecchiette, a coin-sized, saucer-shaped noodle that does an excellent job of catching the bits of sausage. Small shells and campanelle work well, too. If you can find pecorino Sardo, a sheep's milk cheese from Sardinia, use it in place of pecorino Romano; it has a milder, slightly smoky flavor and adds complexity to the dish.

4 to 6

Servings

Tip

Don't use canned tomato sauce instead of tomato puree. The former contains seasonings such as salt and garlic powder; the latter is made from only tomatoes. Also, don't worry if the sauce is ready ahead of the orecchiette; it won't suffer if it waits a few minutes off heat while the pasta finishes.

35 minutes

Ingredients

  • ¼

    cup extra-virgin olive oil

  • 4

    medium garlic cloves, chopped

Directions

Reviews
EMILY N.
November 4, 2025
Excellent sauce for a weeknight
This is super easy, unique and quite tasty.
Janet C.
August 31, 2025
Easy and Delicious
Easy recipe to make and was a sure hit with the guests. With a Persian in our midst however, we were instructed to bloom the saffron by place it on top of one ice cube. Once melted, it is bloomed. I would love to hear Milk Street's approach to not or to bloom saffron!
Angel C.
February 23, 2025
Simply . . . delicious
I made exact recipe. The saffron lends a wonderful layer. If you use quality ingredients, this easy dish will impress the snobbiest of food critics. Yes, I'm a snob and make this dish at least once a month as a quick week day dinner or when a friend unexpectedly stops by.
Ray H.
December 5, 2024
An excellent pasta dish
This was very very good. I did not use the saffron and it was still excellent. Orecchiette is very hard to come by locally, but I bought a new pasts called Shellbows. since it has a hole in one end, there was enough water left in the pasta, even after draining and shaking, that I did not have to use any reserved pasta water and it came out perfect. This is definitely a do again, and next time I will try the saffron.
Prem B.
April 6, 2023
great recipe game changer
great
Mary S.

Hi! I just opened an account and would appreciate knowing how the clipboard works. I click on it and it responds that I've saved to the clipboard but I can't find the clipboard! When I type it in various search bars I always get a "not found" response.

Janelle C.

Hi Mary,

The "clipboard" is a copy and paste function. For example, if you were heading to the store to purchase ingredients you could copy the list to your "clipboard" and paste it within another note-taking app on your cellular device. This way you don't have to wait for the site to load while you're at the supermarket to view the ingredients. Hope this helps!

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Kim P.

I've made this several times now, and it's always a huge hit. I do find that I need more tomato puree so I've been using a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, and the rest of the recipe I follow to the letter. The saffron is a great addition.

John B.

Hi Mary,
If you are using your computer to read the recipe, the "clipboard" is just the same as the "copy" command (command-c on a Mac, control-c in Windows.) When you press the Copy To Clipboard, it goes to the same temporary memory in your computer. When you want to paste that information into some sort of document (Word or any other), simply go to that document, put the cursor where you want the list of ingredients to land, and press command-v (Macs) or control-v (Doze). If you're using a smart phone, you're on your own. My phone is dumb as a door knob. Good luck!

Jennifer B.

fabulous, arguably one of the best pastas I've ever made or eaten. you need to have excellent sausage and cheese. and yes, I splurged on passato.

Shawn & Eileen B.

You put wine into hot oil? I made this and just before I added the wine, I did a double take. I was right it was a splatterfest. In turned off the heat added the tomatoes and continued. The flavors were great, but I don’t understand how that step is supposed to work.

Lynn C.

Hi Shawn and Eileen -

I believe the expectation is that the majority of the oil will have absorbed during the cooking of the garlic but, yes, there may be a little left that will cause some splattering.

Best,
The Milk Street Team

Chris W.

I made this out of your Fast & Slow cook book and I have never made a recipe w/o browning the meat first. I hope I don't get sick???

Lynn C.

Hi Chris -

No worries. We don't need to brown the meat in the pressure cooker but that has no impact on safety. Hope you enjoyed it!

Best,
The Milk Street Team

David S.

I have made this a number of times as it is and with great results. I tried the Fast and Slow version but I just don't like it. It doesn't seem as flavorful, I had a hard time with burning with the Instant Pot. I've been playing with making my own bulk sausage with different recipes and it's always great, even though the Italian sausage recipes do vary by quite a lot.

MARY S.

This is was a game changer for me. I'm a purist, and cooking a pasta dish in the instant pot felt really wrong, but I'm so glad I tried it. Pasta was cooked perfectly and the sausage rendered it's fat into the ragu. I completely forgot that it wasn't browned first. I didn't have any orecchiette, so I used Whole Foods Pipe Rigate. Huge hit and kids asked to take leftovers for school lunch:)


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