Recipe: Sausage and Kale Pasta

Success! This got two thumbs up from Dan, which, as I've mentioned before, is really all I look for when I cook. I streamlined this a little bit and cut out a few things that I didn't have (and, uh, forgot to get at the grocery store) and subbed for things I did have. No pictures, but I promise it was good!

Sausage and Kale Pasta
adapted from Serious Eats
You might want to halve this if you don't have a large stockpot. I had hopes that everything would fit into this bad boy, but it was dangerously full (to the point that I couldn't stir anything) so I opted to dump everything back into the pasta pot. This would probably also be good with spinach.

1 pound fusilli or other short pasta (I used cavatappi)
1 large bunch kale, leaves chopped and stems discarded
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from skins and crumbled (I used Al Fresco sweet Italian-style chicken sausage)
1 clove garlic, minced
12-15 whole cherry tomatoes, such as Sungolds (forgot these!)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping (lots of this)

Remove the stems from the kale and clean the leaves. I cut the leaves into ribbons and then chopped across the long way to make smaller pieces, but I'll need to do more chopping next time to get the pieces a little smaller. Boil the kale in well-salted water until tender - I have no idea how long this "should" take. I'd guess I boiled mine maybe 5 minutes. If you have a stockpot with a colander insert, use that and keep the hot water for the pasta. Mine turned a weird greenish brown color because the kale had a purplish tinge to it.

Return the hot water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook to your preferred done-ness and reserve at least a cup of the cooking water. Drain if it finishes cooking before the sausage is ready (toss the water).

While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the sausage. Break up with a wooden spoon and cook until completely browned. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and fennel seeds (if using) and continue to cook until sausage caramelizes and turns golden brown. Add more oil to the pan if needed. Put the kale in the pan and stir/toss to coat. Cook a couple of minutes, and if using cherry tomatoes, add them now and cook until they start to lose their shape. 

Scrape contents of skillet into your big pasta pot (my skillet wasn't big enough for all this goodness!) and add the pasta back to the pot. Stir everything together and add the cheese and enough pasta water to make a sauce. I loaded up on the cheese because it's delicious. 

Top with additional cheese for serving.

Week Twenty: All Done

Sometime over the weekend, fall snuck up on me. Mostly it was the waking up in the dark all week that threw me – it makes Monday that much harder to start off when I have to fumble around the house in the dark. It also started getting REALLY cold at night… like frost advisory cold! Hard to believe that this time last year we were enjoying high 60s to low 70s and sunshiny days (and getting married! … oh, and prepping for Sandy!). 

Rainbow over Lexington Center.

We had our final pickup in almost total darkness – the farm parking lot isn’t lit (and had next to no cars in it), so I actually wondered for a minute if the pickup time had changed. But we turned the corner and there was the barn, lit up and waiting for us. We got lettuce, potatoes, scallions, broccoli, sweet potatoes, peppers, celery, a rutabaga, and parsnips. I went a little crazy with the last chance to get new stuff. The newsletter included a recipe for a yummy-sounding spiced rutabaga cake, so I definitely wanted to try that, and I’d never had parsnips before either.

The final harvest.

Last night our friend Sam had a Mary Kay party, so I needed (well, wanted!) to bring something over to snack on. This recipe for roasted broccoli queso popped up in the “other posts you might like” on Macheesmo, so of course that was going to be it! Perfect timing. It turned out pretty well, I think, although I probably shouldn’t have let it heat to nuclear temps in my tiny dipper crock pot… whoops! We still enjoyed it, though, and we had a great time getting makeovers and talking skin care and girly stuff.

Sam and the Minion!

Stay tuned later this week for a recap of the season. I may also start posting elsewhere for “other” cooking adventures, as this has been kind of fun!

We were allowed "two pounds" of rutabaga... which was, in my case, this bad boy.

 Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Queso Dip (adapted, not very much, from Macheesmo)

2 cups broccoli florets (I had about 1 cup of farm broccoli so I used up a bag of frozen broccoli)

1 four-ounce can of chopped green chiles (I did the best I could with the 7 oz can from Market Basket)

¼ white onion, grated or very very finely diced

¼ cup flour

¼ cup butter

2 cups milk, warmed

8 ounces grated cheddar cheese

Toss the broccoli with a little olive oil and salt & pepper, then roast at 350* for about 20 minutes. Stir everything around once or twice to keep from getting too brown and burn-y.

Make the queso while the broccoli does its thing:

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the grated onion and chiles, and let cook about 5 minutes so the onions get nice and soft and sort of start melting away. Add the flour and whisk, whisk, whisk! Cook another 4 or 5 minutes to cook out the “flour” taste – it should be golden/tan. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until slightly thickened and warmed through. Add the cheese in stages, stirring, until it’s all incorporated.

Let the broccoli cool a little bit before chopping it up even more, then gently stir into the cheese. Serve with chips, thinly sliced and toasted bread, or veggies.

Week Eighteen: Hearty Veggies

This weekend was a success for my cooking and baking adventures. I had a couple interesting mishaps at my class (like adding about 3 tablespoons of pepper to a dish that was supposed to have a spice mix added), but my home attempts were well-received. I made gingerbread cookies, Dan’s favorite, and some rolled cookies with chocolate and plain sugar cookie dough. I’d actually meant to make those last weekend, but I forgot about the dough while it was chilling in the freezer.

Apparently I didn't take pictures of my cookie masterpieces?!
I also went to Harpoon Brewery's Octoberfest.

I also made my first successful Alfredo sauce. Just about every other time I’ve made it, I’ve ended up with a thin, weak, garlic-flavored milk sauce… but not this time! I’m not sure what I did better this time (maybe follow the recipe?), but it wasn’t too bad. I boiled up some pasta and chicken pieces, and then threw in some farm broccoli in the last minute or so of cooking, and boom. Broccoli chicken Alfredo.

Again, no pictures. I don't know what's wrong with me.

It’s a little weird to go to the farm when it’s nearly dark – and it was strangely empty last night. Maybe everyone would rather go during the daylight hours. We had a few yummy surprises this week to shake things up. We got the usual potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, and peppers. I was thrilled to find fennel – YUM – and we also got a cabbage for our friend. There were also some sweet potatoes available, so we grabbed some of those as well. Perfectly timed, too, since I just saw a recipe for sweet potato gnocchi the other day. Weekend project!

Sweet potatoes... I'm going to make pasta (ish) out of you!

Lovely peppers on top of the fennel fronds.

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo (sauce adapted from AllRecipes)
This fed four of us with leftovers, but I would have liked some more broccoli and chicken. And more sauce; this wasn't quite enough to give a nice thick coating.

2 chicken breasts, cut into ¾” or 1” pieces
1 lb pasta (I used mini wheels since that's what we had)
2-3 small heads broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces (stems optional, but peel them before cutting into pieces if you use them)

3 T butter
3 T flour
2 c milk
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or mashed
½ - ¾ c Parmesan cheese, grated (I used the Romano we have in the fridge)
Salt and pepper to taste
Grate or two of nutmeg (optional)

Put a big pot of water on the stove to boil. Once boiling, add the chicken and cook for a minute or two. Add the pasta and stir to keep everything from sticking. (Add a drizzle of olive oil if you want.) When the pasta is almost done, add the broccoli to the pot. Drain and return everything to the hot pan, off the heat.

For the sauce:
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, then slowly whisk in the flour. Whisk over medium heat to make a roux. Add the garlic and cook briefly. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook, stirring, until slightly thickened. Mine took about 8 minutes, I think. Add the cheese and keep whisking until the sauce is the right consistency for you. Taste, and if the sauce is bland, add salt until it tastes like cheese. (And/or add more cheese!) Pour the sauce over everything in the pasta pot and stir to combine.

Serve with additional cheese on the side.

Week Seventeen: Early Nights

I can’t believe it’s October already! I’m still bummed that the nights are coming faster, but I’m loving the extended summer weather we've been having. I had to go into Boston yesterday morning and ended up walking a little over 2 miles around the city in what was probably the perfect “walking” weather: not too cold in the shadows but not too hot in the sunlight. (I’m only a little sore today.)

 

Cruising down Route 2 this weekend.

For the first time in ages, we didn’t walk around the picking fields – so hopefully we didn’t miss anything good! We’ve had decent luck with the raspberries, as I’ve said before, by just strolling through and snacking on what looks good. The harvest is starting to get smaller, but I’m looking forward to some yummy fall squash soon! You can probably guess what we picked up this week – we’re creatures of habit, I guess: tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, peppers (red bell and sweet frying), leeks, and broccoli rabe (new!).

It’s been a busy week so I tried to focus on “easy” veg – last night was my big cooking night. I made “Shallot Surprise” and sautéed the broccoli rabe for a side. This weekend I need to find a way to use up all of my potatoes (about 3 or 4 pounds)… maybe gnocchi? I’ve got lots of extra scallions, too, so will need to do something with those. Yikes!

“Shallot Surprise” (a riff on Rachael Ray’s “That’s Shallotta Flavor Pasta”)

~1 lb shallots

1 lb pasta

Olive oil

Butter

1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced

1 c Romano cheese (grated)

Peel and slice the shallots. (I hate this part – my eyes water like crazy! I have to do this right next to the stove with the exhaust fan on high, but that doesn’t always help very much. I’m told you can also do this with your gas stove on very low heat, to burn off the sulfur fumes.) Heat a couple tablespoons each of butter and olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic to the pan and sauté til it’s fragrant, then add the shallots.

 

I was too weepy slicing these to get a picture!

Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the shallots start to caramelize. Meanwhile, cook pasta per the directions on the box. When almost done cooking, add about a cup or so of the water to the skillet (it will sizzle) and add the cheese. Add the drained pasta and carefully toss to coat with the cheese and shallots. Add more cheese and/or water as needed to evenly coat pasta with the sauce.

Serve hot with additional cheese and freshly ground pepper.

Sautéed Broccoli Rabe (based on Rachael Ray's)

1 lb broccoli rabe, stems trimmed

1-2 T cooking oil

1 clove garlic, minced

Juice and zest of one lemon

Salt

Bring about an inch of water to boil in a large, deep skillet. Coarsely shop the broccoli rabe, then add to the boiling water and reduce heat to simmer. Salt the water, cover, and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Drain the rabe really well, then put the pan back on the stove. Add the oil, garlic, and some of the zest and cook over medium heat for a minute or two, then add the drained rabe to the pan. Sauté a couple more minutes, and transfer to serving dish. Toss with lemon juice and remaining zest to serve.

Week Eleven: Halfway

Well, we crossed the halfway mark of the CSA this week… time certainly has been flying. The weather’s been weird, which seems to have led the farm crew to worry that the harvest would start shifting into autumn mode. Given this week’s harvest, though, I’m pretty sure the plants are still in summer production mode. The tomatoes, anyway.

We could pick a half-pint of raspberries from the fields. This one is about the size of the pad of my pinky finger.
And now I understand why these are so darn expensive at the grocery store!

We could pick ten (!) things this week… and we could double up on a few things. When Matt & Aly learned that they had the option to double the “five pounds of tomatoes” item… I think they actually jumped for joy. So we came home with ten pounds of tomatoes! They also got shallots to share, some potatoes, and lettuce. I got more purple peppers, carrots, beets, corn to share, and a watermelon.

There's nothing here to compare for scale, but this is what ten pounds of tomatoes looks like.

The size of my cookie jar!

  

After we sweated buckets at yoga, we came back to revel in the tomato glory and make some salsa, which Aly’s going to post about, yay! Matt and Aly grilled up some of the corn for dinner with chicken drumsticks, and I made some pickled peppers and carrots. I had a couple leftover white ones, so I chopped up two each of the purple and white peppers, then diced up about four large (for the farm) carrots about the same size. I poured my usual made-up-proportions pickling mix over everything, and it’s all sitting in the fridge getting yummy.

What's up, doc?

Peter Piper is jealous of my pickled purple peppers.

 I’m not sure what I want to do with the watermelon just yet… I mean, there are so many things I could do! I’ve used a melon baller to make watermelon ice cubes for my water (also did this with sliced cucumbers for Pimm’s cups!), but I feel like I should do something more exciting than that.

Speaking of Pimm’s cups, the English dinner with our parents went really well! Dan, my pie crust expert-in-residence, learned something about how we can apply the pie crust next time (what exactly, I already forget – crusts are not my thing!), the stew itself was great, and my Pimm’s cups were ratest “best ever”. I also exploded the Camembert container again, but I made sure to put it on a small foil-covered baking sheet before putting it in the oven!

Still not perfect... but not all over my oven!

We got the Pimm’s cups recipe/proportions straight off the Pimm’s web site: 1 part Pimm’s to 3 parts lemonade. As I was making the first batch, Dan realized that in the UK they might refer to Sprite as “lemonade”… but as we already had a gallon of Market Basket’s finest in the fridge, we stuck with that – to great success, I feel. The week prior I had washed, quartered, and frozen a container of strawberries, so those were ready to do double duty as ice cubes and a little flavor. I also froze cucumber slices (same deal), and lemonade in an ice cube tray. I garnished each glass with some mint from the yard (what little I could find after Dan had gotten to it with the weed whacker), and by Jove, they were delicious.

It's Pimm's o'clock somewhere!