From America’s Test Kitchen Best-Ever Cooking for Two
2 TB EV Olive Oil
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
Salt
4 oz sweet Italian Sausage
1 small Fennel bulb, stalks discarded, bulb halved, cored, and sliced thin
1/4 cup Pine Nuts, toasted and chopped coarse
1/4 cup chopped fresh Basil
1 TB fresh Lemon Juice
6 oz Whole-Wheat Spaghetti
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Combine oil, garlic, pepper flakes and 1/4 tsp salt in a small bowl; set aside. Cook sausage in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat, breaking up meat with wooden spoon, until browned and crispy, 5 to 7 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to paper towel-lined plate. Add fennel and 1/8 tsp salt to skillet and cook, stirring often, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Push fennel to sides of skillet. Add garlic-oil mixture to center and cook, mashing mixture into pan, until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Stir garlic-oil mixture into fennel. Off heat, stir in pine nuts, basil, lemon juice, and sausage. Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts of water to boil in large pot. Add pasta and 1 TB salt and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water, then drain pasta and return it to pot. Add fennel-sausage mixture and 1/3 cup reserved cooking water to pasta and toss to combine. Adjust consistency with remaining reserved cooking water as needed. Season with salt to taste, sprinkle with Pecorino, and serve.