Saturday, May 23: Broccoli Melt Sausage Orechiette
We LOOOVED this recipe for Broccoli Melt Orecchiette by Seemore! In addition to their delicious sausage (which is full of humanely raised pork, broccolini, Monterey Jack, pepperoncini, and garlic), this dish also features broccoli, parm, butter, and lots of lemon (plus pasta water to bring it all together). So much flavor!! (See original recipe here, or my adaptation below.)
In a large pot of well-salted, boiling water, add a few small heads of broccoli or broccolini (about 1.5 pounds) that you’ve roughly chopped into large florets. Blanch for 2-3 minutes, or until bright green and crisp-tender, then remove to a colander and let cool. Once cool, chop into small pieces and set aside. (Don’t drain the water! Keep it boiling for your pasta later.)
In a large high-sided skillet, saute pan, or Dutch oven (large enough to eventually toss one pound of pasta in), heat up a few TB olive oil over medium heat. Add 2 or 3 cloves of garlic (smashed and peeled but left whole) and saute for 5 minutes to infuse the oil. Once the cloves are golden, remove from pot. Add in 1 package of Seemore Broccoli Melt sausages that you’ve removed the casings from and torn into bite-sized pieces. (Note: these sausages are pre-cooked and have lots of delicious flavors and add-ins. However, you could totally just use 12 oz of raw spicy Italian sausage, casings removed and crumbled, instead — just be sure to cook a bit longer in the first step to cook it through.) Saute sausage, breaking it up with a spoon into smaller pieces as it cooks, until browned.
While the sausage is cooking, get your pasta going! Add one pound of orechiette (or other similar pasta like medium shells or rigatoni) to the same pot of water you boiled your broccoli in, and cook for a few minutes less than instructed on box. Reserve your pasta water when pasta is done, as you will use it to make the sauce.
Once sausage is browned, add in your finely chopped blanched broccoli, plus the zest of one lemon, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt. Stir to combine flavors and coat the broccoli in the delicious fat from the sausage. Add about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water to the sausage and broccoli, and use spoon to scrape up any browned bits from bottom of pot. Let water simmer and reduce a bit, then add your drained pasta (best way is to use a spider to transfer pasta directly from water to pot) and another 1/2 cup of pasta water. Throw in 2 TB butter and toss to combine. With heat on medium-low, alternate adding splashes of pasta water with handfuls of grated parm (about 1/2-3/4 cup parm in total) , letting the pasta finish cooking and the butter/parm/pasta water create a creamy, emulsified sauce. When pasta is al dente, add in the juice of one lemon and give one final stir, making sure the sauce is loose enough as it will continue to thicken/absorb as the pasta sits.
