Jack's Food Blog

What is Linguiça?

Linguiça is a smoked pork sausage found in Portuguese & Brazilian cuisine. It’s usually served alongside carbs like pasta, rice or potatoes. It’s strong, complex and meaty. The main flavours that come through are garlic and paprika.

Where to Find Linguiça

or me, the best place to find Linguiça sausage is in a Portuguese or Brazilian butchers, although you can sometimes find it in other specialist supermarkets too. It tends to be sold in strings of large, brightly coloured sausages, with a fair bit of fat in which all adds to the flavour.

What Should Linguiça Be Served With?

With it being a strong flavoured and meaty sausage, Linguica works well with an astringent, hoppy beer that will cut through the fattiness and freshen up your palate. A strong red wine with ripe fruit will work well too.

Before you start cooking, skin the linguica to save faffing around with it once the veg is frying. Once you’ve done this, break it up into chunks and roughly roll the meat into balls. The size is completely up to you. I found that linguica sausage breaks up a fair bit, but that’s no problem.

Finely chop your onion, carrot, garlic, chilli and celery, and thickly dicing your red pepper too. Heat up the olive oil in a large cast iron pan as you do so.

Next, fry your veg, chilli and garlic for 10 minutes at a medium heat in a tablespoon of olive oil, stirring regularly. Then add the sausage to your pan and cook in with the vegetables. Try not to move everything around too much over the first couple of minutes, as the sausage will break up if not sealed first. Cook for 10 minutes without a lid, then 10 minutes with one, still stirring regularly.

Now, squeeze in your tomato puree and cook for 2 minutes, before adding the peeled tomatoes, italian herbs, sriracha and balsamic vinegar. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the passatta, turn the heat right down and cook for another 10 minutes. You guessed it – stir regularly.

At this point, cook your pasta in well-salted water. Once it’s finished (al dente is best), add a little of the pasta cooking water to your sauce until you reach the consistency you are looking for, then mix. Then add the creme fraiche & parsley to the sauce, mix well, and serve atop the pasta. Enjoy!