You might well wonder how a Southern boy with an English last name had the temerity to create a pasta dish and name it for a famous opera singer. If you aren't and couldn't care less, just skip to the recipe, which is awfully good if I do say it myself. But if, like most Southerners, you're a little curious (we prefer that to nosy), then here is how such an unlikely thing came about.
When legendary opera baritone Sherrill Milnes retired from singing, he and his wife, soprano Maria Zouves, founded V.O.I.C.Experience, an outreach training program for aspiring young singers. More than a decade later, they started working to bring that program to Savannah, Georgia. It took the form of The Savannah Voice Festival, and my musician husband helped to kick-start it at historic Christ Church, the parish he was serving at the time.
Thirteen years later, the festival is an established part of Savannah's summers. Timothy still produces the sacred music concert, accompanies singers, and offers vocal coaching. Meanwhile, I'm not a musician by any stretch, and my singing is like Scarlett O'Hara with her pistol: I can shoot straight, if I don't have to shoot too far. I'm just there to listen. And to cook.
Somewhere along the way, Maria and Sherrill and the other musician mentors involved in V.O.I.C.Experience stopped being famous singers to us and became dear friends. We love going back down to Savannah for the festival's operas, vocal concerts, and master classes, but what we cherish most is the time in between events that we spend with those friends.
Anyway, about that pasta: The year the festival went virtual during the pandemic, Maria asked me to develop a pasta recipe in honor of her husband. The idea was that everyone could make it to "share" during the virtual finale banquet. Spaghetti alla Sherrill was born.
Once we were able to be together again, it's become sort of a tradition (okay, we've done it twice) for Maria and me to make it for the crowd that inevitably gathers at the Milnes's Savannah house to eat, drink wine, sing, and listen to Sherrill's many tales about the legends with whom he shared the Met stage and countless recording studios throughout his long career.
I really can't take much credit for the recipe, which is based on sauces that Italian cooks have made with sweet sausage for hundreds of years. All the same, that people are still talking about it and making it five years later makes me a little bit proud.
The original recipe was designed to serve two, but it multiplies easily, and this updated post-pandemic version serves a larger group of four to six.
Spaghetti alla Sherrill
(Spaghetti with Sausage, Tomatoes, and Zucchini)
Spaghetti is the maestro's favorite pasta and he likes it with lots of sauce, so that there's still plenty left to sop up with bread after the pasta is gone. Consequently, this makes more sauce than usual for 4 servings of pasta. If you're of an Italian mind set, it will suffice for 6 servings (a 16-ounce box of pasta). It's designed for spaghetti, but is also good with thin spaghetti, angel hair, linguine and, as we found out this past festival, penne.
Serves 4-6
1 pound small (about 4) or medium (about 2-3) zucchini
1 pound (about 4) mild (sometimes labeled "sweet") Italian sausages
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup chopped shallot or yellow onion
Salt
3-4 medium cloves garlic, lightly crushed, peeled, and minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 rounded teaspoon crumbled dry oregano
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 rounded teaspoon crumbled dry rosemary
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 rounded teaspoon crumbled dried sage
Hot pepper flakes to taste
1 cup dry white wine or extra dry white vermouth
1 28-ounce can tomato puree (or 4 cups fresh tomato puree, see notes)
Raw (turbinado) sugar
12-16 ounces spaghetti, preferably imported Italian
About 1½ cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano cheese
Crusty bread such as a baguette
1. Scrub the zucchini under cold running water. Cut off and discard the stem and blossom ends, then cut the squash crosswise into 1-inch-thick rounds. Stand each round on a cut end and cut it into ¼-inch thick rectangular slices. Cut each slice into ¼-inch sticks. Remove the sausage meat from its casings (discarding the casing) and roughly crumble it.
2. Put the butter, oil, and shallot in a large, deep, heavy-bottomed skillet or enameled iron Dutch oven over medium heat. Sauté, tossing, until it's translucent, about 3 minutes, then add the zucchini and sauté until it's beginning to color, about 3-4 minutes, and remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon to a wide, shallow bowl, season lightly with salt and set it aside.
3. Add half the sausage meat to the pan and lightly brown it, crumbling it with a fork or spatula. Remove it and repeat with the remaining sausage, then return it all to the pan. Add the garlic, herbs, and a generous pinch of hot pepper flakes. Toss until fragrant, about half a minute, then add the wine, bring it to a boil, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, and let it reduce slightly. Add the tomato puree, bring to a boil, and season lightly with salt and, if the tomatoes are not very sweet on their own, a teaspoon or so of raw sugar. Adjust the heat to a slow simmer and cook 20-to-25 minutes, or until thick. Taste and adjust the seasonings and turn off the heat. The sauce can be made to this point up to 4 hours ahead.
4. When you're ready to serve it, bring 4 quarts water to a rolling boil in a heavy-bottomed 6-quart pot. Stir in a small handful of salt and the spaghetti and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, using the package directions as a rough guide and beginning to check for doneness about a minute before the suggested cooking time. While the pasta is cooking, fold the zucchini into the sauce and gently reheat it over medium-low heat. Warm a large serving bowl with hot water, drain it, and wipe it dry.
5. When the pasta is ready, reserve about ¼ cup of its cooking water, then quickly drain the pasta and put it into the warmed serving bowl. Add the sauce and toss until evenly mixed, adding a few spoonfuls of the reserved cooking water if it seems too thick. Add ¼ cup of the cheese and toss until mixed, then add another ¼ cup of cheese, toss, and serve at once, passing the remaining cheese and crusty bread separately.
Notes on Tomato Puree: Canned puree of Italian plum tomatoes is your best choice for this sauce out of season, but it really shines with a puree of fresh ones. For 4 cups of puree, you'll need 2½ pounds of tomatoes and a food mill or coarse wire mesh sieve. Wash, quarter, and put them in a saucepan with their juice (yes, skins, seeds, and all). Bring to a boil over medium heat, adjust the heat to a lively simmer, and cook until they're beginning to fall apart, about 20 minutes. Put a food mill fitted with the medium-hole disk over a 4 quart bowl or fit a large coarse wire mesh sieve over the bowl. Put the tomatoes in the food mill or sieve and force them through into the bowl (either device will catch all the seeds and skins).