I’m always on the lookout for new, interesting pasta recipes and America’s Test Kitchen recently posted this one. It's always fun to use new pasta shapes, and “orecchiette, which means “little ears” in Italian, was a first for me. And broccoli rabe, was a new English term for me. I knew it in Portuguese, "grelos de nabo", as it's traditionally used in soup recipes here in Portugal, but I've never used it in pasta dishes before. The other main ingredient was Italian sausage, which I couldn’t find, so I used Portuguese chouriço instead. However, next time, if I can’t find something more similar to Italian sausage (any suggestions, please let me know!), I will buy minced pork and season with spices, such as fennel or sage. Another tiny adjustment... ATK recommended including all the broccoli rabe stems, but I perfer using only half of them.
Enjoy! 💗Helena
INGREDIENTS:
- 500 grams broccoli rabe
- 230 grams Italian style sausage (or seasoned, minced pork)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅛-¼ red pepper flakes
- 4 liters of water, plus 1 tablespoon table salt, for blanching the broccoli rabe (and later boiling the pasta)
- 1 cup of pasta water
- 500 grams orecchiette pasta
- 60 grams Pecorino Romano, grated
DIRECTIONS:
- Trim, chop and blanche the broccoli rabe for 2 minutes.
- Remove the skin of the sausage and brown the minced meat in olive oil in an iron skillet.
- Add the minced garlic and pepper flakes and mix.
- Add the blanched broccoli rabe and mix.
- Boil the pasta in the blanched, salted water until it's al dente.
- Keep 1 cup of the pasta water. Then strain the pasta and pour it back into its pot.
- Add the sausage mix into the pasta and stir.
- Add the grated Pecorino Romano and stir.
- Add ⅓ of the pasta water and continue to stir. Add more pasta water, as needed, to emulsify the sauce and to make it creamy in its consistency. And now it's ready to serve! 😋
Comments
Post a Comment