Orecchiette with Chicken Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
We Also Love
1 of 4
- Comments()
- Prep Time 20 minutes
- Total Time 35 minutes
- Yield Serves 4
Ingredients
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 2 bunches (2 pounds total) broccoli rabe, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 8 ounces orecchiette or other short pasta
- 2 precooked Italian chicken or turkey sausages (6 ounces total), cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Directions
-
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add broccoli rabe, and cook until bright green, about 1 minute. Using a wire skimmer or small sieve, transfer to a colander set over a bowl to catch drips (a few bits may remain in cooking water); set aside. Return water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain and return to pot.
-
Heat a large skillet over medium-high. Add sausage; cook, without turning, until browned, about 4 minutes. Add broccoli rabe, vinegar, and garlic. Cook until broccoli rabe is tender, scraping up browned bits in skillet, 2 to 3 minutes.
-
Add pasta and oil to broccoli rabe mixture. Season with salt and pepper; toss to combine. Serve.
Cook's Note
Broccoli rabe is a slightly bitter-tasting cousin to cabbage and is a good match for Italian recipes, especially pasta. Quickly boiling it tones down its bite without losing many nutrients.
Pretty good, however i used fresh sausage (and much more than the recipe calls for) and added cayenne pepper with the pasta to spice it up. Overall a pretty tasty dinner.
I added about a cup of chicken stock towards the end of the cooking because without it, this recipe is a little dry. Overall really yummy and super easy. Even my three year old gobbled it up!
Substitute 1/4 c. chicken broth (use 99% fat free to keep calories in check) for the vinegar and you have a winner. For anyone willing to forge ahead with the original recipe, I would suggest reducing the amount of vinegar to no more than 1 tablespoon - 2 is way too much! A few shavings of fresh parmesan finished this dish off nicely.
We did not care for this recipe at all. However, it could be that I am just not a fan of broccoli rabe. Too bitter and the vinegar added a kind of strange flavor to it. My hubby said something was "off" about it and he is usually not too picky. A waste of the good chicken sausage I bought.