Brothy Pasta with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe, and Chickpeas too!
A little twist on a classic Italian pasta dish.
Today’s recipe is a take on one of the most classic Italian pastas, but I decided to switch it up a little. Big, fat bunches of broccoli rabe look so enticing in the supermarket produce aisle—but what to do with them? Although I sometimes braise it as a side, more often it inspires me to make a version of pasta (traditionally orecchiette) with sausage and broccoli rabe. Sometimes I add a little tomato or another vegetable, or sometimes I throw in some beans, as I did this time. One time I even added clams, making it the perfect mashup of two classics.
Today I took it in a brothy (but not quite soupy) direction, with the idea being you could get away with a little less pasta per serving. Not that I don’t love pasta—I do! But I often bulk up my pasta dishes with more veggies and the like to lower the carb load. This way I can still eat a “big bowl of pasta" that’s only about half pasta. My brain and taste buds don’t know the difference.
I also upped the protein in this version with the addition of canned chickpeas, which cutely nestle themselves in the cupped pasta shapes. If you’re not into chickpeas or don’t have them on hand, white beans would work well here too.
Broccoli rabe, also known as rapini to Italians and Italian-Americans, has become commonplace in supermarkets around the U.S., but there was a time not long ago when that was not the case. I was recently reminded of this fact when I was reading Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking, which I highlighted in a recent newsletter. In a story called “Bitter Greens,” Colwin starts off by saying that 10 years earlier, in the late ’70s (OK, I guess that was a pretty long time ago), she came across a vegetable she had never seen before called “Broccoli di Rape.” She goes on to tell us that on her first outing with it, she simply steamed it and served it with butter. Apparently everyone hated it, which I’m not surprised to hear—this is one vegetable that is not the best simply steamed. And perhaps it was a taste not yet acquired by most.
If you’re not familiar, broccoli rabe is made up of a bunch of greens with little broccoli-like florets. It has lots of leaves and thick stems, most of which are totally edible, if not the best part. To know it is to love it, but given its bitter nature, I fear that people (meaning you) might be intimidated by this lush vegetable. Don’t be! While the bitterness might be off-putting to some, when cooked in the right way and with the right supporting players, it's a triumph—and a great way to get your greens. The flavors in this dish are powerful and play well against the bitter rabe, despite the short and simple ingredient list. A word of advice: You should not be shy with the garlic and the red pepper flakes.
While you can go straight from the salad spinner to a skillet, I find it much easier—more wieldy, if that’s an actual word—to briefly blanch the rabe first, which not only makes it easier to deal with, but also takes some of the bite out of it. Like most greens, the rabe will reduce to about ¼ of its original size after a brief trip into boiling water. If you were to try to sauté it without this step, you’d have to jam it into the pan a little at a time because of its volume.
I know there’s a big push to make recipes that can be called “one-pot,” but sometimes it’s just not the best way to cook. And besides, a pot that only had boiling water in it isn't really all that dirty, is it? In the case of this recipe it’s actually a time saver, because you can reuse the water to boil your pasta while you cook the sausage and garlic on the other burner.
If you’re a fellow fan of this delightfully bitter green, I trust you’ll love this recipe and hope you’ll add it to this week’s dinner lineup. With its well-rounded, punchy flavors and comforting warmth, I happen to think it will convert any broccoli rabe skeptics out there too.
Looking for another quick and easy veg-heavy pasta? This Cavatelli with Caramelized Onions, Broccolini, and Crispy Garlic from the archives is a forever favorite.
