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1
Melt the butter in a wide pan over a low-to-medium flame. Add the finely diced onion and cook gently until soft and translucent, with no colour. The onion should be entirely yielding when pressed with a spoon.
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2
Add the crumbled sausage meat. Cook slowly, breaking it into small pieces continuously with a wooden spoon, until the fat has rendered fully and the meat is uniformly golden. No large chunks should remain — the sausage must integrate with the fat into a fine, even crumble.
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3
Raise the heat and deglaze with the white wine. Stir, scraping the base of the pan, and cook until the wine has evaporated completely. The sharp smell of alcohol must be gone before proceeding.
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4
This is where the dish lives or dies: reduce the heat to low, add the cream and, if using, the passata and meat broth. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens just enough to coat the back of a spoon in a thin, silky film. It must not be reduced to a paste — the sauce should remain fluid enough to flow into the hollows of the pasta.
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5
Cook the gramigna in well-salted boiling water — 3 to 4 minutes for fresh, 8 to 10 minutes for dried — until just al dente. Drain, reserving a ladleful of pasta water.
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6
Transfer the drained gramigna directly into the sauce. Toss over a low flame for one minute, adding a splash of pasta water if the sauce tightens. Every hollow and curve of the gramigna should be visibly filled with sauce and sausage crumbles — no dry pasta should be visible.
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7
Remove from the heat. Add the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and toss to combine. The sauce should bind to the pasta in a coherent, glossy whole. Serve immediately.