Quick Meal

Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccolini

I made this pasta last night and it was so good that I immediately had to share the recipe. My wife sent me a link and bought all the ingredients to make it - like a personalised Hello Fresh kit. It’s fairly quick and simple to make and yields a large amount of pasta.

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Ingredients:

  • .Orecchiette pasta, 500g

  • 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (1 for cooking sausage, 4 for sauce)

  • Italian sausages, removed from casings, 500g

  • 5-10 garlic cloves, minced (or approx 2 tbsps worth)

  • 1 cup chicken broth

  • 1 bunch of broccolini (approx 2-3 cups worth), cut into small pieces

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon chili flakes

  • 3 tablespoons (60g) unsalted butter

  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese


Method:

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the orecchiette pasta and cook according to package instructions (approx 10 minutes).

  2. Meanwhile, in a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium high heat. Crumble the sausage into pan and cook, breaking apart with a spoon (or kitchen scissors), until lightly browned, 5-6 minutes.

  3. Reduce the heat to medium and add the garlic; cook for 1 minute more.

  4. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil, chicken broth, broccoli, salt and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pan to release any meat that might be stuck, until the broccoli is tender-crisp (approx 3-4 minutes).

  5. Stir in the butter until melted and simmer for a few minutes to reduce and concentrate the sauce. (Note: it will seem like a lot of oil & butter, but there is a large volume of pasta).

  6. Drain the pasta well and add to pan. Stir through sausage and broccoli mixture, along with half of the cheese, to blend. Taste and adjust seasoning. (Note: you may need to adjust salt to taste).

  7. Transfer to a serving platter or individual bowls and pass the remaining grated cheese at the table.


Cooking the sausage

Cooking the sausage

finished result (needed to add more chilli flakes!)

finished result (needed to add more chilli flakes!)