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Pasta with broccoli di rapa and sausage is one of my favorite pasta dishes, and one that I make often–especially in the colder months.  I vary the dish from time-to-time in different ways.  Sometimes  I boil the sausage first, then slice it into thin rounds.  Sometimes I use fresh Italian sausage, removed from its casing and chopped finely as I saute it (no pre-boiling necessary).  Sometimes, I substitute a cured sausage, like andouille or chorizo, for fresh sausage.  Sometimes I eliminate the sausage entirely.  Tonight, I’m using fresh sweet Italian sausage.

In addition to the sausage, I’ve added olives–pitted kalamata olives.   Olives deepen in flavor and take on an entirely different character when they’re fried or roasted in the oven.  Their normally high acidic notes are greatly tempered and they become rich and unctuous.  When fried, they retain just enough of a salty bite to punctuate the bitterness of the broccoli and the richness of the sausage. 

Tonight, as our pasta, we’re having cavatelli.  Cavatelli are found in the freezer of most supermarkets.  They’re a great pasta to make for guests–they can actually be fully boiled ahead of time (unlike most other pastas which should be boiled and served only at the last minute lest they overcook).  Cavatelli are sturdier and more forgiving–they can be boiled, drained, placed atop the sauce or condiment, let sit undisturbed while you have a first course or antipasto.  When you’re ready to serve, simply turn the burner under the skillet of pasta to high, toss pasta and sauce together with a couple of ladles of pasta cooking water, drizzle with oil and serve.   

Although I’m not serving guests tonight, I appreciate the ability to completely cook the pasta prior to sitting down at the table.  We’re starting with a salad of baby romaine lettuce, beets and cherry tomatoes (from my neighbor Beppi’s garden), then going on the pasta as our main course.

 Pasta with Broccoli di Rapa, Sausage and Black Olives

serves 3 as a main course or 4 as a first course

2  13-oz. pkgs cavatelli

2 bunches broccoli di rapa

1 lb Italian sausage (either sweet or hot) removed from its casing

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1/3 c pitted black olives, such as kalamata 

1/4 c olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

chili flakes for sprinkling

grated pecorino for sprinkling

Chop broccoli crosswise into 1″ pieces, eliminating the bottom inch of stem.  Drop into boiling sated water for 3 minutes or until crisp-tender.  Drain and set aside.

In a broad skillet on high heat, pour 2 tablespoons olive oil on high heat and add sausage.  Saute while chopping with spatula, until sausage has lost all pink color and just begun to brown.

Add garlic and olives, saute for about 4 – 5 minutes.

Add broccoli and chili flakes and continue sauteing for another 2 minutes or until pasta is ready.

Boil pasta in plenty of salted water until done.  Add drained pasta to skillet of sauce.  If not serving immediately, allow pasta to sit atop the condiment until ready to finish the dish. 

If serving immediately, stir pasta into sauce, adding a cup of pasta water and the remaining olive oil. 

Tonight I’m making an intimate birthday dinner for two.  For this special occasion, I’m seizing on the bounty of beautiful (and expensive) wild mushrooms that I’ve been coveting for weeks at my produce market.  I’ve been noticing morels ($49/lb), chanterelles ($29/lb), and lobster mushrooms ($49/lb), as well as less rare varieties, like shiitakes and oysters.  For the past couple of weeks, however, I’ve been cooking for larger groups, and not inclined to make such a lavish dish for a large group.  Tonight, however, is the perfect occasion to buy a little assortment of these wild mushrooms, since I’m only cooking for two.   I’ve selected chanterelles, morels and shiitakes (left to right, below).

There are so few ingredients in this dish, its’ outcome is totally dependent on the quality of those ingredients:  mushrooms, garlic, chicken stock, butter and white wine.  There are no herbs to mask or intensify the flavor of the mushrooms (just a sprinkle of parsley at the end to brighten the dish). 

The chicken stock should be good, intense homemade stock.   One of the most valued flavoring agents in my freezer is an assortment of unassuming little ziploc bags which contain the drippings from various roast chickens and turkeys.  These drippings get frozen with their layer of fat, then the fat is easily scraped off once they’re frozen.  They get diluted with water (or tossed into a soup or stew) and provide the richest little bursts of flavor you’ll ever taste in a kitchen! One of these packets will be the chicken stock in my pasta tonight.

This dish should be made and eaten at the last minute, although you can make the sauce and let it rest for about 20 minutes if you’re having an antipasto before the pasta.  In that case, simply wait to boil the pasta until after the first course is eaten, then reheat the sauce briefly, toss in the pasta and serve immediately.

Tonight we’re having a beautiful caprese salad as a first course (maybe the last one of the season) with some tomatoes I’ve had ripening for a week on my window sill.

After the salad, we’ll have the pasta plus a vegetable on the side–swiss chard–boiled, then sauteed with olive oil and salt pork.

Pappardelle with Wild Mushrooms

serves 2

8 oz. egg pappardelle

1 lb assorted wild mushrooms (I used 1/3 lb chanterelles, 1/3 lb shiitakes, 1/3 lb morels)

3 cloves garlic, split

1/2 c white wine

1 c homemade chicken stock (or drippings from a roast chicken)

2 tbls fresh chopped parsley

6 tbls butter

2 tbls olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

grated parmigiano for sprinkling

Prepare mushrooms at the last moment prior to cooking:

For shiitakes:  remove stems from and discard.  Wipe any loose soil from their surfaces with a damp paper towel.  Slice tops into 1/2″ lengths.

For chanterelles, rinse quickly under running water and dry with paper towels.  Slice larger ones into bite-size pieces. 

For morels, slice in half lengthwise and rinse with sprayer to dislodge any particles of dirt from their honecomb exteriors.  Place in a deep bowl of water to allow any remaining soil to dislodge.  Repeat once or twice more if there is still a lot of dirt in the water.  Drain in strainer and set aside.  

In a broad skillet with olive oil and 3 tbls butter, saute garlic until just golden.  Add mushrooms and saute on medium heat.

 Continue sauteing for about 3 minutes, then sprinkle with salt and pepper (about a half-teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper).  Raise heat and add wine.  Reduce wine until there is only a glaze remaining in the pan.  Add stock and half the parsley.  Lower heat to simmer.

Drop pasta in boiling salted water.  When pasta is cooked, add to skillet, along with a half-cup of pasta cooking liquid, the remainder of the butter, and the parsley.  Toss and serve immediately with plenty of grated parmigiano.

My inspiration for this brilliant recipe came from perusing an old cookbook, “Red, White and Greens,” by Faith Willinger.  I met Faith Willinger while I was apprenticing at Po Restaurant.  She was a good friend of Mario’s and when the cookbook came out, Mario gave her a reception at the restaurant.  She was a spirited and passionate person, earthy, warm and inspiring.  Although American born, she’d lived in Tuscany for many years by the time she wrote this cookbook.  It’s a great read and I recommend it for lovers of simple, yet innovative vegetable dishes of all kinds.

Anyway, since it’s broccoli season, I decided to try my version of this dish.  It can be made with broccoli, cauliflower, or romanesco broccoli. The basic methodology is often seen in bean soup recipes, where the soup is made, then part of it is pureed and part is left un-pureed. This results in a creamy base which retains its texture from the un-pureed ingredients.

The thing I love about this technique is that it uses the entire stalk of broccoli–stem and all.  Simply peel and dice the stem, boil and saute with salt pork and onions.  Boil the florets separately and set aside. Make a puree of the stems, some of the florets, and half the salt pork and onion mixture.  The remaining broccoli florets and pieces of salt pork remain whole.

My pasta of choice for this dish is cavatelli.  These sturdy little pillows of pasta, made with ricotta, are brilliant in all kinds of preparations.  The beauty of cavatelli is that they can be boiled ahead, held in a strainer, then tossed into sauce at the last minute, making this an ideal dish to serve to guests.

Tonight, we had this pasta as our first course.  Our main course was Beppi’s Broiled Chicken Thighs with Rosemary, and a salad of arugula and cherry tomatoes, dressed with lemon and olive oil.

Cavatelli with Creamy Broccoli

serves 4

2 packages frozen cavatelli

1/4 lb salt pork, sliced thin

1 small red onion, diced

1 large head of broccoli

1/4 c olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

pecorino romano for sprinkling

Remove broccoli florets from stem, and peel stem mercilessly with a paring knife–remove all fibrous outer layers.  Dice into 1/2″ cubes.

Drop stems into boiling salted water and cook for 8 minutes on high heat.  Remove and drain.  Boil florets in same pot for about 5 minutes.  Remove and drain in strainer.

In a broad skillet over low heat, pour half the olive oil and render the salt pork for about 5 minutes, then add onions and continue sauteing on low heat for another 5 minutes.

Add in diced broccoli stems and saute another 3 minutes.

Remove half the salt pork slices from the skillet and set aside.

Pour the rest of the mixture from the saute pan into blender, along with a cup of broccoli cooking liquid.  Process until a smooth puree results.  Add 3 or 4 florets of broccoli to the blender and continue to process to a puree.

Return the puree to the saute pan, along with the florets and slices of salt pork.  Simmer on lowest heat while cavatelli cook.  Drop cavatelli inro the boiling broccoli cooking liquid (add some water if too much has evaporated), and cook until done.

When cavatelli are cooked, place in skillet of sauce, along with a cup of pasta cooking water.  Saute together for a minute, then drizzle with the remaining extra-virgin olive oil and top with plenty of black pepper.  Serve plenty of grated pecorino romano at the table.