Orecchiette w/ Spicy Italian Sausage & Kale
I first had a version of this made with wild spinach at Lupa (Thompson between Bleecker and Houston). It’s so simple and so delicious and I can’t thank Mario Batali enough for having it at his restaurant as a special the night I was there almost 3 years ago. I’ve since tried to recreate my own version. I think this is a pretty classic Italian dish often made with broccoli rabe - I’ve only had broccoli rabe 2 ways: bitter and delicious. I have yet to try my hand at it. I used kale instead of wild spinach because I think it stands up a little better to the heat and I love love love kale…I hear it’s also considred a superfood: http://home.howstuffworks.com/kale3.htm
So I’m trying to eat a little healthier lately and have been using spicy Italian turkey sausage with an additional spray of Pam in the skillet. The recipe below is how I had been making it prior to my little health kick.
Make sure you prep everything first and have it all close by. Once everything goes into the skillet, it all happens real fast and before you know it, one thing leads to another and smoke starts filling the room and pasta gets mushy and you’re apologizing to your belly for the sins you are about to commit against it. So, just get your chopping and stuff all done first okay? kthx.
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Serves 2
- A couple handfuls of orecchiette pasta
- 1 small bunch of kale
- 1/2 small red onion
- 2 cloves of garlic (I’m actually a garlic fiend, so I probably used like 4 or 5, but 2 should get the job done)
- 1 link spicy Italian sausage
- a drizzle of good olive oil
- the only salt you need is for the pasta water and use black pepper to taste, but I find that I don’t really need any extra seasoning because of the spices in the sausage.
- Fill your sink with cold water. Take the kale and rip out the stem/rib so you only have the leafy parts. Tear it into bite size pieces (about 2”x2” squares) and throw it into the water. Do this with the whole bunch (or as much as you want, maybe you’re not all into kale like I am. It’s cool.) Toss it around in the water a bit to shake off any grit that may have been left on and let it float in it’s little swimming pool.
- Fill your pasta pot with water and get that boiling.
- While you’re waiting for the water to boil, start chopping the onion into a medium dice and mince the garlic.
- Put a pan on medium heat. Take the sausage and squeeze it out of its casing. With a wooden spoon (or whatever you want to use) start breaking up the sausage until it’s bite size or crumbles. I don’t oil the pan because I find that the fat in the sausage is enough.
- By the time the sausage is broken up, the water in pot should be boiling. Go ahead and throw a big bunch of salt in the pot and those couple of handfuls of orecchiette. I’ve also used gemelli for this too if the store was out of orecchiette. Ok, from this point, you’ve got about 7-9 minutes.
- Take the onion and throw it into the pan with the sausage. Once the onion gets soft (like 2 or 3 minutes) put the garlic in. Mix the whole thing up until the garlic starts cooking (about a minute or so) then get the kale that’s still floating in your sink, shake off the excess water and put it into the pan. You can cover it if you want to keep some of the steam in, but I like to live on the edge and just wing it. I toss the kale into the sausage/onion/garlic. It’ll take about a minute or 2 to get all wilty.
- Check on the pasta. My guess is that it’s either done or has about a minute or so to go. Don’t over cook…aldente is not just for Barilla commercials, it’s for folks like you and me. If you’re sausage and kale are finished and you’re still waiting for the pasta, turn off the heat of the pan.
- When the pasta is done, take what ever you have that will allow you to move it from the water directly to the pan. Yes I’m too lazy to take out a colander, walk my pot o’water all the way over to the sink (so what that it’s right next to the stove) and then bring the colander all the way back to the pan. I have one of those big pasta spoons with a hole in it. How ever you do it, just get the hot pasta to the sausage/kale.
- Mix it all together thoroughly and drizzle with really good olive oil.
Belly says mmmmmmmmm…
Next time I make this, I’ll take some photos. Enjoy!
