Orecchiette With Sweet Sausage and Broccoli Rabe Pesto
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Salt
- ½pound broccoli rabe, stems trimmed off and discarded or saved for another use
- 3cloves roasted garlic, peeled
- 10tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ¾cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 1cup finely chopped fennel bulb
- 1cup finely chopped onion
- 1pound sweet Italian sausage, casing removed
- 2cups chicken stock
- 500grams (about 1¼ pounds) dried orecchiette, or fresh (made with 4 cups of flour)
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
748 calories; 36 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 21 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 72 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 33 grams protein; 838 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Bring 3 quarts water to a boil in a pot and add 1 tablespoon salt. Add broccoli rabe and cook about 5 minutes, until tender. Drain and place in a large bowl of ice water. Drain and squeeze dry. Turn on a food processor and drop garlic in through the feed tube. Stop machine, scrape down sides and add broccoli rabe. Pulse until finely chopped. Stop machine. Add 6 tablespoons oil. Pulse until pesto comes together but is not creamy or thoroughly emulsified. Transfer to a bowl and fold in ¼ cup cheese.
- Step 2
Heat remaining 4 tablespoons oil in a large sauté pan on low. Add fennel and onion, and cook until soft but not brown. Add sausage and cook, mashing it to a fine crumble, until it is no longer pink. Add chicken stock and cook until the stock has mostly evaporated and just glazes the sausage. Transfer sausage mixture to a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Return sausage to the pan. Fold in broccoli rabe pesto. Set aside.
- Step 3
Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orecchiette and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes. Reheat sausage mixture and add about ½ cup of the pasta water. Drain pasta and add to pan with the sausage mixture. Toss ingredients together until pasta is evenly coated. Fold in remaining ½ cup cheese, check seasoning and serve.
Private Notes
Comments
This is a family favorite. I simplify the process by just adding the pesto into the cooked sausage & fennel mixture in the pan and reheating; I don't bother to cram all that hot stuff into my food processor. It also retains more texture of the sausage and onion/fennel, which I like. I also just use a whole onion and a whole fennel bulb, which is usually more than called for.
Would recommend adding a bit more garlic to the recipe, maybe 4-5 cloves and also to add fresh basil at that phase, seems like would enliven the dish. Overall though, very tasty.
This is an odd sauce, the word “pesto” is maybe a little misleading? I think it important to make sure the chicken stock is low sodium, and the recipe might benefit from the addition of pine nuts. It certainly benefits from some red pepper flakes. Mine did not look like the photo, despite following the recipe to a T, but more the issue was how distinctly pork-y this was. Maybe would be better as a vegetarian sauce with cooked sausage coins thrown in separately.
Great dish. Jake suggested putting Basil in. I wouldn't do that as the Basil and Fennel would fight with each other and one or the other would get lost.
While the taste was good on this dish it reminded me that a big part of what I like about most sausage and broccoli pasta is the texture. With everything broken down into a “pesto” texture it creates a weird sandy texture and as another commenter mentioned, makes it taste more “porky” than a traditional recipe would.
How much pesto does this recipe yield? Wanting to sub a really great homemade pesto that was gifted to me but the recipe doesn't give an estimate...