Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

Delicious!

I bought some broccoli rabe on the spur of the moment when I was shopping.  I had a couple recipes lying around that called for it.  Then I talked to my sister who suggested I cook it up with some chicken and whole wheat pasta.  I was on my health kick so had no kinds of pasta around so took myself off to the store in a hungry mood; problem 1.  Problem 2; I decided I wanted Orecchiette (little ears) pasta but my store was not offering that in wheat.   Problem 3; I couldn’t remember which of the whole wheat pastas I like because really I don’t especially like any of them.  I opted for regular durum wheat (white?) Orecchiette.  Time for the chicken; I wandered over to the organic chicken and looked at a few packages thinking that I can’t really cook chicken breast in dishes like this.  I always overcook it and it turns out tough and gross.  Solution; pork sausage! If I had not been so hungry I probably would have remembered turkey or chicken sausage but at this point my usual bulk sausage was in hand.  Plus I have made this dish before so the hunger led me down a familiar and delicious path.

Here’s what I did.

Boil up some salty water and cook your Orecchiette. I used half the box for 1 lb of bulk sausage and one bunch of broccoli rabe. 

Cook the sausage in frying pan over medium heat, breaking it up with a spatula as it cooks.  When the sausage is done I put it on a plate with some paper towels to drain a little bit (see, healthy!) 

Next sauté the chopped broccoli rabe in the sausage fat, add a little olive oil if you just drained all the fat off.  (it’s health-ier).  When it’s all wilted down; throw in a couple cloves worth of chopped garlic and some red pepper flakes. 

Next, add a little chicken broth, or Better than Bullion and water, to the broccoli rabe and then put the sausage back in. You could probably use white wine here too, or even skip it.  I would if I didn’t have any broth. 

When the pasta is done scoop out about 2 cups of pasta water and then drain.  Do not rinse, add the pasta to the sausage broccoli rabe mixture.  Pour in about 2 cups of the pasta water.  Cook together about 1 minute and then turn off the heat.  You want everything to meld together but you also want some moisture to remain in the pasta so you can heat it up tomorrow.  Unless you plan to eat it all in one sitting; it’s that good so you might.  But, it tastes even better the next day.