• Finely chop carrot, celery and onion. Add a tbsp oil to pan and cook on med heat until just before starting to brown.
  100 g onion, 100 g carrots, 100 g celery
• Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.
  2 cloves garlic
• Add fennel seeds and stir.
  1 tsb fennel seeds
• Remove skins from sausages and add to the pan. Turn the temperature up to med/high. Make sure sausages are broken down. Cook for 6–8 minutes, until browned all over and any liquid has evaporated.
  400 g sausages
• Add glass red wine and cook for 2-3 minutes until wine reduces by about half.
  175 ml red wine
• Add 1 tablespoon of tomato purée and stir through. 
  2 tbsp tomato puree
• Add good-quality tinned tomatoes and reduce the temperature to low/medium, simmer gently for 30–45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a splash of water or stock if it thickens too quickly.
  400 g tinned tomatoes
• Separately, while the ragu is cooking, melt 1tbsp of butter in a pan on med/high heat and add the chestnut mushrooms. You will want to brown the mushrooms and not let all the liquid release from them.
  1 tbsp butter, 250 g chestnut mushrooms
• Add the mushrooms to the ragu 5 minutes before the sauce is cooked and mix through.
• Taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  1/2 tsb salt

For the pasta

• Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Use about 1 teaspoon of salt per litre of water. A big pot gives the pasta room to cook evenly.
  300 g Rigatoni pasta
• Add the rigatoni and stir it in to prevent sticking. Check the packet for the recommended cooking time (usually 10–12 minutes), but start tasting after 9 minutes.
• Cook until al dente. The pasta should be tender but still have a slight bite in the centre. Avoid overcooking as it will soften more once mixed with the ragu.
• Add a spoonful of pasta water to the ragu if it's too thick.
• Mix pasta with ragu and serve with a topping of  torn basil and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
  grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, basil leaves