Saturday, September 29, 2007

Italian sausage and broccoli rabe pasta

This dish, from the Puglia region of Italy, can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta. That's my kind of cooking, especially during the week. My friend happily stuffed himself on this dish so it was either really good or he was starving!

1/2 box of pasta like penne or orrichette
2 Italian sausages, remove from casings and chop into pieces
A bunch of broccoli rape, aka rapini, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/3 c. olive oil
A pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper

1. Cook the broccoli rabe in a large pot of boiling water for 4 minutes. Drain. Reserve the liquid and drink it. This is what we call "pot likker" in Dixie. It is good for you.
2. Add the pasta to boiling water.
3. In a large skillet heat the olive oil. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes and sausage. Cook until the sausage begins to brown.
3. Add the broccoli rabe. Cook another 4 or 5 minutes. Season w/ salt and pepper
4. Drain pasta. Stir the sausage mixture into the pasta.
5. Top with shredded parmesan or pecorino romano.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As the anonymous friend in this article, I can vouch for the recipe and look forward to trying to recreate it! I'll probably cheat a little and add some crushed red pepper in the cooking stage instead of heaping it on at the end, but I am a "go" for this any time any place!