Sugo bianco (Tuscan white sauce)

For ➍/ 75 cl*
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 sweet Italian sausages**
2 large fresh porcini mushrooms, brushed & chopped
1 medium zucchini, grated
4 fresh sage leaves, coarsely chopped
3 tbs fresh cream or mascarpone
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Heat a saucepan. Heat olive oil. Make the onion soft.
Strip the skins away from the sausages and crumble the sausage meat with a fork or your fingers.
Add the sausage meat to the onions and continue cooking very gently, stirring occasionally, until the meat has browned.
Add the grated zucchini to the pan, also add the sage. Stir well, and cook on medium heat until the zucchini bits are softened. Stir in the chopped mushrooms. Add a few tbs of water. Raise the heat to medium and cook rapidly until most of the liquid has evaporated or been absorbed.
Take the sauce off the heat, and stir in the cream. Return briefly to the heat.
Season to taste.

Serve immediately over gnocchi, fusilli, or other short, curly pasta. Mix the pasta and sauce for 1 m, so the sauce really clings to the pasta, not that the pasta swims around in sauce.

*Leftovers can be frozen for a short period.
**Or any good fresh thick sausage with rather coarse meat. It can also be made with strips of wild boar or pork.
This white sauce, sometimes called ragu' bianco, has no tomatoes, and can be served with a variety of pasta.