Strozzapreti with Sweet Corn, Pesto & Chicken Sausage

I don't buy fresh pasta often. Dried bronze-cut is usually all I want, and it keeps in the pantry. But Daisies runs a pasta counter here in Chicago, and their strozzapreti is the kind of thing that changes your plans for dinner. The name means "priest strangler." The shape is a length of dough rolled and pinched so it twists on itself, and it grabs sauce in a way no dried noodle does.

It's late July. The corn at the market is at its peak, sweet enough to eat raw off the cob, and I had a coil of Wanda Farms chicken sausage in the fridge. So this wasn't planned so much as assembled. Pesto in the blender, corn off three ears, sausage out of its casing. Twenty-five minutes and it was on the table.

Ingredients

The Pasta

• 1 lb fresh strozzapreti (Daisies, or any good fresh short twist)
• Salt for the pasta water

The Pesto

• 3 packed cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3/4 cup good olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• Salt

The Pan

• 1 lb chicken sausage (Wanda Farms), casings removed
• 3 ears sweet corn, kernels cut off
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Reserved pasta water

The Cook

Make the Pesto First

Get a pot of water going. Salt it hard, like the sea. Blanch the basil for 10 seconds, then shock it in ice water and squeeze it dry. This is the one step people skip, and it's why their pesto goes brown by the time they sit down. Blanched basil stays that deep green you see in the photo, all the way to the plate.

Into the blender: basil, pine nuts, garlic, a big pinch of salt. Pulse. Stream in the olive oil until it's a loose paste. Pulse in the Parmesan last, quick, so the friction heat doesn't dull it. Taste for salt. Set it aside.

Keep that pot of water. You'll cook the pasta in it.

Brown the Sausage

Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium-high. Break the sausage in with your hands into rough, thumb-sized pieces. Don't stir it right away. Let it sit and catch color on one side, three or four minutes, then break it up as it cooks. You want browned edges and rendered fat in the pan, because that fat is going to carry the corn.

The Corn

Push the sausage to one side and add the corn straight into the fat. Let it sit and char in spots before you stir, a couple of minutes. Fresh July corn barely needs cooking; you're after color and a little smoke, not doneness. Cut the heat once it smells sweet and toasty.

Bring It Together

Drop the strozzapreti into the boiling water. Fresh pasta is fast, two to three minutes, so watch it. When it floats and has a little bite left, pull it straight into the skillet with tongs. Bring a mug of the starchy pasta water with it.

Kill the heat. Add the pesto now, off the flame, so it stays green and doesn't split. Toss the pasta, sausage, and corn together, adding pasta water a splash at a time until the pesto loosens into a sauce that clings to every twist. It should look glossy and a little loose, not dry. It'll tighten as it sits.

Plate

Straight into warm bowls. A little more grated Parmesan over the top, a crack of black pepper. Save any leftover pesto in a jar with a film of oil over it; it'll keep a few days and it's good on eggs the next morning.