Farro Pasta with Nettles and Sausage
- Total Time
- About 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3tablespoons olive oil
- 1large onion, diced small
- Salt and pepper
- 1pound hot Italian fennel sausage, casings removed (see recipe for homemade sausage)
- 4garlic cloves, minced
- 1tablespoon tomato paste
- 1pound farro pasta (or another type of dried pasta)
- 1pound rinsed nettle leaves (or other greens, like bok choy or mustard, roughly chopped)
- Ricotta salata cheese for grating (or Romano or Parmesan)
Preparation
- Step 1
Fill a large pot with water for pasta and bring it to a boil.
- Step 2
In a wide, deep skillet, heat the olive oil over a medium-high burner. Add the onion and a little salt, and let the onion begin to soften. Add the sausage meat, breaking it into rough pieces with a wooden spoon, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are lightly browned and the sausage is done, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste and stir well to coat. Turn off the heat.
- Step 3
Salt the pasta water and begin cooking the pasta. When the pasta is nearly ready, reheat the onion and sausage mixture over a high burner. Add the nettles or greens to the pan along with ¼ cup pasta water and stir until wilted and tender, about 2 minutes. Check the seasoning.
- Step 4
Drain the pasta when al dente and mix with the skillet ingredients in a large warmed bowl. Serve with coarsely grated ricotta salata.
Private Notes
Comments
This has become one of my favorite go-to pasta dishes. Definitely concur on kale as a substitute. I use more kale and waaay less pasta, half a pound is plenty. Also add a generous sprinkling of fennel seeds to spicy italian sausage since I don't have fennel sausage.
I use regular pasta and prefer kale when nettles aren't available. Really delicious.
Reporting back to say that I made this nettles twice; once with the called for amount of nettles and once with 2x the called for amount. The recipe is right, if using nettles use the called for amount. If using another green (I’ve made with spinach) 2x the amount is nice.
Followed the recipe with the exception of farro pasta (used regular) and used ramp bulbs in place of garlic. Next time I will use more greens or less pasta, one sweet Italian sausage and one spicy.. or maybe just sweet .. I like spicy but it outshined the greens in this case. I also used almost 3/4 cup of pasta water to get a non dry consistency. It was tasty and like others said; a yummy foundation to riff on. Will make a version again.
I also make it with dandelion greens with a fantastic result. I blanch the stem part and fry the leafy part.