Sagnarelle with chicken livers and wild garlic

Serves 4

(Photograph by JasonLowe)

I've used a pasta here that is a bit like a chopped-up pappardelle. It's easy to eat and soaks up the rich sauce well. Chicken livers make a great base for a pasta sauce – they can be chopped as finely or as coarsely as you wish and here I've added wild garlic to give the pasta that seasonal touch. Wild garlic works perfectly in all sorts of pasta dishes as it naturally wilts into the sauce and you could even just use wild garlic, olive oil and butter to make a really simple and tasty pasta sauce.

4 servings of sagnarelle (or pappardelle)
4 small shallots, peeled, halved and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
300-350g chicken livers, cleaned and chopped into small pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4tbsp extra virgin olive oil
100ml marsala
100ml chicken stock
60g butter

A handful of wild garlic leaves, washed, dried and torn in half

Cook the sagnarelle in boiling salted water according to the manufacturer's instructions. While the pasta is cooking make the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy frying pan and gently cook the shallots and garlic without colouring them. Turn up the heat, season and add the livers and fry on a high heat, stirring every so often until they begin to colour. Add the marsala and stock and cook on a high heat until it reduces by about half, then add the wild garlic and butter and continue cooking for a couple of minutes until the garlic leaves have wilted and the sauce thickened. Drain the sagnarelle then mix half the sauce with it, re-season and transfer to warmed plates, then spoon over the rest of the sauce.

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